A woman (X) working at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed
the details of the sexual assaults she suffered while working at
the MoD and the failure of the Department to deal adequately with
the allegations she raised.
The details come after 60 women wrote an open letter about sexual
harassment and a culture of sexism within the department.
X came forward to Prospect with her story after seeing the letter
in the press. She hopes that making the details of her experience
public will help stop anything similar happening to someone else.
Prospect also wrote to the MOD, on behalf of the joint trade
unions, well over a year ago in September 2022 calling for a
review of Bullying, Harassment, Discrimination and Victimisation
(BHDV) policies and procedure, including provision on timelines
for process completion. There has been no meaningful engagement
on these policies, and in fact the MOD have abolished the
Personnel Policies Committee replacing it with a HR Forum, which
has yet to acknowledge the joint trade unions’ request and
engage.
Sue Ferns, Senior Deputy General Secretary of Prospect,
said:
“That these assaults happened at all is shocking but for the MoD
to so comprehensively fail to deal with the culprits, or take
adequate measures to stop it happening again, is completely
unacceptable.
“Abusive behaviour thrives in an atmosphere of permissiveness and
cover up.
“It takes huge courage for women to come forward when these
behaviours happen in a work-related setting, so when they do it
is critical that their employer acts. The MoD needs to stop being
part of the problem, start taking allegations of this nature
seriously, and introduce a proper system to deal with bullying
and sexual harassment.”
Testimony
Sexual assault in MOD
X joined MOD several years ago. She experienced her first
sexual assault the year after she joined. Whilst out one evening
with a mixed group of colleagues for a work social event, X was
stood in a group chatting when, out of the blue, a male colleague
grabbed both her breasts in front of everyone and squeezed them.
X was shocked and embarrassed and asked him not to do that but
about a minute later he repeated the action.
Some years later, X had moved to a role based overseas, on her
own. Two weeks later she was invited to the Officers Mess which
she attended to try and meet new people. Later in the evening at
the married quarters of a MOD couple, she felt a man’s hand
running up and down her left thigh. She moved her legs away to
stop him, but he did it again whilst sitting opposite his wife. A
couple of weeks later the same man plied X with alcohol she told
him she did not want. X took issue with this but was told by the
man that she should be grateful.
The incidents were raised with X’s line manager, who raised it
with the man’s manager. Because X didn’t want to cause a scene,
being the ‘new girl’ in the office, at risk of ostracising
herself, she simply asked that the man did not contact her or
come near her. After having the talk with his line manager, the
man stood at X’s office door with both arms leaning high on the
sides of the door frames, coming across in an intimidating
manner. He asked what X had said and told her that nothing had
happened.
More recently X was sexually assaulted for the third time. This
occurred at a work conference in a period when she had been
suffering from depression. After she confided in a colleague, he
became flirtatious. After an upsetting incident involving X and a
female colleague, the male colleague that X had been talking to
offered to escort her to her hotel room. X declined but he
followed her anyway and then asked to come into her room. X said
that he could not, but he did so anyway and then tried to kiss
her.
The following morning the same man asked if X was OK and winked
at her. Subsequently X’s manager allowed her to limit her
interaction with the man to online meetings. However, she
continued to feel intimidated by him.
X did ask for CCTV footage from the hotel but was told she could
only have it if she reported the incident to the police. She made
a formal complaint to MOD. The defendant was not suspended during
the investigation despite being X’s countersigning officer, and X
was not entitled to receive support through this process.
