Kalifornia
28th January 2011, 21:06
Two soldiers have been on the run from the army for 11 days after claiming they could no longer tolerate mental and physical bullying by their comrades.
Privates Andre Treble and Andrew Jones, both aged 22, fled Buckley barracks near Hullavington, Wiltshire, on 3 March saying the attacks, known as "beastings", were unbearable.
The pair want to be discharged from the army.
The Ministry of Defence said it was aware of the allegations by the men, from 9 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, adding that any recruit who "falls short of the army's high standards" would be disciplined.
A spokesman said the Royal military Police was investigating the allegations and appealed to the pair to contact their unit or call a confidential services helpline.
The men absconded four days after Treble claims he was beaten by two soldiers who then ransacked his room.
He said on a blog that his attackers "came into my room and cornered me before kicking and punching me to the ground whilst the third private laughed". He says he ended up with a "split lip, black eye, a cut head, a bloody nose and a mouthful of blood".
Treble spoke by phone to the wiltshire gazzete and herald on Thursday about a six-hour report he said he gave to the military police following the incident but said he had little faith it would be acted on.
He told the paper: "I love the army but I can't take it any more. They think they're above the law but they're not."
Jones's mother, Anne Evans, said her son had been verbally bullied after standing up for Treble. Treble, who had visited her home in south Wales and had become a family friend, was first picked on after testing positive for cannabis in February, she said.
Evans, 56, a medical copywriter, had phoned Treble on his mobile and heard him being physically assaulted during the call, she said. "We carried on talking on the phone, then all of a sudden there was a bang on the door, and then sniggering and giggling.
There was the sound of low voices.
Then I heard not heavy bangs but lighter bangs. You could hear scuffling and clattering. Andre dived out of a bedroom to the guardroom.
"When he got back, there was blood up the walls, his personal belongings had been wrecked. They had also put water in a coffee jar and tipped it on the bed. Then the jar had been smashed and ground into the sheets."
The day before they left, her son sent her a midnight text message saying: "This is too dangerous for me and Andre.
We NEED to get out of here as quickly as possible." Another short message said: "Me and Andre have been confronted by them so we are not staying here.
If we are not discharged by the end of the day we are going awol."
Evans, whose husband, Robert, 55, has terminal cancer, said the situation could quite easily have become another Deepcut. The men had briefly come to her home after they left the barracks, saying they were returning to base to seek a discharge, but police later traced Evans's car, which they were driving, to Edinburgh.
Evans said she could no longer get an answer from either man's mobile phone. "My son has been told he is going to Afghanistan in September. But how can he go there knowing he will have to protect people who have attacked his mate? No one is going to forget Deepcut. The army owes a duty of care to its employees."
Evans was so horrified by what she heard that she wrote about it on a blog. She said Treble, whose injuries can be seen in a photograph she took, had the "living daylights" beaten out of him.
She wrote: "This is the so-called British army who, in their spare time, beat up one of their colleagues – and then lie about it to the guardroom – telling their superiors that Andre Treble walked into a door and fell downstairs or some such rubbish.
"Those thugs did not realise that I heard what was going on and they did not realise that I was listening in and that I would ensure that this kind of thing must stop."
In a report published last week, the new service complaints commissioner, Susan Atkins, said that the armed forces needed a "step change" in the way they deal with allegations of bullying and harassment. She said armed forces personnel lacked confidence in the system for dealing with claims of abuse.
The government pledged to crack down on the bullying of recruits following the scandal at Deepcut in Surrey, where four teenage soldiers died amid allegations of bullying and harassment.
Privates Andre Treble and Andrew Jones, both aged 22, fled Buckley barracks near Hullavington, Wiltshire, on 3 March saying the attacks, known as "beastings", were unbearable.
The pair want to be discharged from the army.
The Ministry of Defence said it was aware of the allegations by the men, from 9 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, adding that any recruit who "falls short of the army's high standards" would be disciplined.
A spokesman said the Royal military Police was investigating the allegations and appealed to the pair to contact their unit or call a confidential services helpline.
The men absconded four days after Treble claims he was beaten by two soldiers who then ransacked his room.
He said on a blog that his attackers "came into my room and cornered me before kicking and punching me to the ground whilst the third private laughed". He says he ended up with a "split lip, black eye, a cut head, a bloody nose and a mouthful of blood".
Treble spoke by phone to the wiltshire gazzete and herald on Thursday about a six-hour report he said he gave to the military police following the incident but said he had little faith it would be acted on.
He told the paper: "I love the army but I can't take it any more. They think they're above the law but they're not."
Jones's mother, Anne Evans, said her son had been verbally bullied after standing up for Treble. Treble, who had visited her home in south Wales and had become a family friend, was first picked on after testing positive for cannabis in February, she said.
Evans, 56, a medical copywriter, had phoned Treble on his mobile and heard him being physically assaulted during the call, she said. "We carried on talking on the phone, then all of a sudden there was a bang on the door, and then sniggering and giggling.
There was the sound of low voices.
Then I heard not heavy bangs but lighter bangs. You could hear scuffling and clattering. Andre dived out of a bedroom to the guardroom.
"When he got back, there was blood up the walls, his personal belongings had been wrecked. They had also put water in a coffee jar and tipped it on the bed. Then the jar had been smashed and ground into the sheets."
The day before they left, her son sent her a midnight text message saying: "This is too dangerous for me and Andre.
We NEED to get out of here as quickly as possible." Another short message said: "Me and Andre have been confronted by them so we are not staying here.
If we are not discharged by the end of the day we are going awol."
Evans, whose husband, Robert, 55, has terminal cancer, said the situation could quite easily have become another Deepcut. The men had briefly come to her home after they left the barracks, saying they were returning to base to seek a discharge, but police later traced Evans's car, which they were driving, to Edinburgh.
Evans said she could no longer get an answer from either man's mobile phone. "My son has been told he is going to Afghanistan in September. But how can he go there knowing he will have to protect people who have attacked his mate? No one is going to forget Deepcut. The army owes a duty of care to its employees."
Evans was so horrified by what she heard that she wrote about it on a blog. She said Treble, whose injuries can be seen in a photograph she took, had the "living daylights" beaten out of him.
She wrote: "This is the so-called British army who, in their spare time, beat up one of their colleagues – and then lie about it to the guardroom – telling their superiors that Andre Treble walked into a door and fell downstairs or some such rubbish.
"Those thugs did not realise that I heard what was going on and they did not realise that I was listening in and that I would ensure that this kind of thing must stop."
In a report published last week, the new service complaints commissioner, Susan Atkins, said that the armed forces needed a "step change" in the way they deal with allegations of bullying and harassment. She said armed forces personnel lacked confidence in the system for dealing with claims of abuse.
The government pledged to crack down on the bullying of recruits following the scandal at Deepcut in Surrey, where four teenage soldiers died amid allegations of bullying and harassment.