Allegations of sexual abuse at Army Foundation College Harrogate show the need for a culture change - Ahmed Al-Nahhas

As a lawyer who has spent most of his career representing survivors of sexual crime in the armed forces, I’m not at all surprised by the stories of rape, abuse and sexual harassment at the Army Foundation College Harrogate (AFC), reported widely by the BBC recently.

The victims in that story are believed to have been children at the time of the alleged events. In fact, these issues are widespread in the military, and have been for many years, though this doesn’t make the revelations any less disturbing.

The AFC provides ‘phase one’ training for Junior Soldiers, including recruits as young as 16. These are young people living and training away from home. Many have hopes of serving their country in lengthy careers, and many give up other prospects for that opportunity.

It is a tough environment that is meant to bring out the best in our future soldiers, but the experiences that have been reported are beyond egregious and, sadly, more commonplace than you may think.

What compounds the situation is that the MOD has known about this situation for some time. In a 2020 AFC survey, 48 per cent of female junior soldiers reported experiencing bullying, harassment or discrimination.

MOD figures for 2021 recorded 47 victims of sexual offences who were under 18 across the military: 37 were female and 22 were based at the AFC. Between July 2022 and August 2023 there were 13 alleged sexual offences associated with the AFC which were referred to North Yorkshire Police: nine alleged rapes, two sexual assaults and two voyeurism offences.

These figures and a number of worrying case studies were reported to Parliament in November 2024 by Child Rights International Network, a children’s rights charity. In September 2025, MOD internal systems recorded 176 sexual allegations between January 2018 and June 2025 relating to the AFC. Of these, 32 related to permanent staff and 144 to Junior Soldiers.

Could you imagine a secondary school being allowed to remain open, or retain funding, in the light of these statistics? Suffice to say that for any institution which has the responsibility for the welfare of people, let alone children, this should have raised alarm bells.

Instead of owning the problem, the MOD has historically sought to challenge the data, much of which is its own, and distracts us by pointing to its various initiatives at tackling inappropriate behaviours. None of this has been effective. Moreover, it has continued to present the AFC as a centre for excellence and will proudly advertise to parents of future recruits its “outstanding” inspection rating from Ofsted for its ‘welfare, duty of care and training provision’. I would challenge anyone at Ofsted or the MOD to explain how that rating was deserved or could sensibly be maintained.

The problems at the AFC reflect wider cultural issues throughout our armed forces. The last substantial review into inappropriate behaviours, the ‘Atherton report’, concluded in 2021 following evidence from over 4,000 servicewomen, and identified woeful levels of inappropriate behaviour and serious issues with the reporting and handling of sexual crime, both up and down the chain of command. Servicewomen were being failed, and the message was: enough is enough, we must do better.

Since then, we have had a series of further scandals, including Jaysley Beck’s case, but these issues are by no means exclusive to the Army. We have also heard stories from the Submarine Service, the Red Arrows and the Royal Military Police, to name a few. More recently, in Autumn 2025 Professor Anthony King’s report was released, estimating that at least one in ten servicewomen had been subjected to non-consensual sexual activity and a third had been groped or touched inappropriately. The MOD tried to suppress that report, presumably because it was a damning indictment of its endemic cultural issues.

Victims face a number of hurdles. Firstly, there is a wholly inadequate Service complaints system. That system is meant to investigate inappropriate behaviour impartially, but instead servicewomen are regularly victim-blamed and treated like pariahs. In fact, internal polls have shown, year after year, that personnel do not trust the MOD to investigate or resolve these systemic issues fairly, with good reason.

Secondly, cases involving sexual crimes; assault and/or harassment should be exclusively dealt with by the civilian police, who are more thorough and less biased than the Royal Military Police. Successive governments have ignored overwhelming evidence that the Service Justice System cannot be trusted to deal with these cases adequately or fairly. Thirdly, and most importantly, there needs to be a significant culture change. This will require better leadership, education, transparency and accountability. It’s not just the perpetrators that should see justice, but those in the chain of command who should have taken steps to protect those they are responsible for.

Ahmed Al-Nahhas is partner and head of the Military claims team at Bolt Burdon Kemp.