‘No option but to put up and shut up’: Whistleblower report reveals accounts of sexual abuse of women in UK military

A damning report by a Parliamentary Committee in the UK has revealed the stories of servicewomen in the armed forces being sexually abused and losing their jobs for reporting them. One such case talks about a junior servicewoman who said she is a victim of rape and was forced to leave the force while her abuser continued to hold his position. The whistleblower testimony, published on Thursday, disclosed the accounts of rape and sexual assault of eight women. The report, collected by medical teams and sent to a Commons defence committee, highlights the continuing sexual abuse in the military. In January, a report by The Telegraph said that hundreds of women in the armed forces were being “misdiagnosed” with various personality disorders after they reported their sexual assaults at the hands of their colleagues to the department. The testimonies The previously mentioned victim, a junior servicewoman, was raped by someone she shared a “casual relationship” with. Initially reluctant to report the issue, the woman approached a military general physician (GP). The GP, however, advised her to “choose her partners more carefully in future.” A second doctor persuaded her to report the case to her chain of command. Eventually, “she was moved across the country, out of the elite unit, against her will for the career of the rapist and the elite unit he served in.” This is the most serious case of all the eight instances. Another case tells the shocking story of a woman who woke up in her room to “find a male member of training staff smelling her underwear.” She had previously stated that she had once caught the same man watching her sleep. “She describes on another occasion him holding her against a wall and telling her that her real reason to join the Service was to ‘get the leg over as much as possible’,” the report added. Women have no option but to ‘put up’ Chair of the Defence Sub-Committee on Women in the Armed Forces, Sarah Atherton MP, said, “The cases outlined in this evidence are heartrending and demonstrate serious failings within the military justice system and Chain of Command.” “Sexual assault and rape are heinous crimes. As this document shows, when these crimes take place in the Armed Forces, Servicewomen often feel they have no option but to put up and shut up. They are often made to feel as though they must choose between justice and their career, while perpetrators of abuse seem to be protected,” she added. Atherton said, “However, this damning evidence shows that serious problems persist. It reinforces our view that the complaints system is not functioning as it should be and that criminal cases of sexual assault and rape must be removed from the Service Justice System and handed over to civilian courts.” Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook_,_  Twitter and  Instagram_._