Dylan Bettencourt
Following a string of shocking scandals in the British armed forces, soldiers are no longer allowed to pay prostitutes for sex when on deployment outside the country.
The Ministry of Defence revealed that any soldier found to be having sex outside of the UK while with the force will be asked to leave the military. But the troops can still patronise any prostitute inside the UK.
The new set of rules also bars any senior ranking member of the force from having a relationship with a member in the junior ranks.
Minister for Defence People Leo Docherty said the new rules should send a “clear message” that “predatory behaviour” would not be accepted in the force.
The announcement comes a decade after the death of Agnes Wanjiru, a Kenyan sex worker said to have been murdered by a British soldier.
Wanjiru’s body was discovered in a septic tank in a hotel in Nanyuki in central Kenya three months after she was last seen partying with a group of British soldiers. She had a
five-month-old daughter at the time she was murdered.
For decades, residents of Nanyuki have complained about British soldiers, who are deployed there during their summer for hot weather training.
As well as the mistreatment of foreign sex workers, scandals have surfaced regarding relationships between army officials of different ranks.
A string of scandals between senior and junior ranked officials forced the British defence minister to take action. The action taken was to prohibit any sexual exploitation within the ranks by implementing a “zero-tolerance” policy.
This comes after Army cadet Olivia Perks took her own life at Sandhurst after allegations of an affair between herself and an instructor earlier this year.
“The policy will ensure that every allegation will be responded to, no matter where the allegation takes place, and introduces a presumption of discharge for anyone found to be engaging in the targeted behaviours, including buying sex whilst deployed outside the UK,” the minister explained.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the time was right to implement the changes as they look towards more female inclusion in the force.
“Life has moved on, it’s a different generation. We want more and more women to be in our forces,” he said.
Last month, hundreds of British soldiers were banned from Nato deployment after a video emerged of eight paratroopers having sex with a civilian woman who had been snuck into their barracks.
The video showed dozens of other soldiers watching on and cheering as the sex act took place. The Times reported that the same woman had been snuck into the barracks as many as 31 times in the previous five months. Image source: @UKDefenceJournal
