Beck’s family say failures within justice system led to her death after Michael Webber pleaded guilty to crime A former senior noncommissioned army officer has admitted sexually assaulting the teenage soldier Jaysley Beck, who later killed herself. WO Michael Webber pleaded guilty to assaulting Gunner Beck during a training exercise and will be sentenced at the military court in Bulford, Wiltshire on 31 October. Continue reading...

Niece of Agnes Wanjiru says she thinks John Healey is ‘taking us for a ride’ The niece of a Kenyan woman who was murdered more than a decade ago, allegedly by British soldiers, has said her family now believe the defence secretary “just made a promise for his political gain” when he met them in April. John Healey told the family of Agnes Wanjiru of his “determination to see a resolution” in the case of her murder, pledging the UK’s full support for the investigation. Continue reading...

Treating the scandal as an aberration misunderstands the global epidemic of violence against women

Abstract In recent years a new tide of memorials dedicated to victim-survivors of gender-based violence has started to rise across the world. In this article, we analyze a significant example of this ...

Women’s rights activists have described museums and other heritage sites as tools of advocacy to fight the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Museums can sensitize the public to se...

New anti-immigrant rules are bad policy & will only validate the far-right

This article asks how museums can mobilize memories of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) for progressive social ends. My case study is the ‘Violence and Gender’ exhibition, which ran at the M...

Exclusive: Union calls for inquiry more than a year after whistleblowers wrote to department about alleged abuse Female defence workers feel little has been done to address sexual harassment more than a year after whistleblowers sounded the alarm about serious problems at the Ministry of Defence, a leading trade union has said. A survey of female members of the Prospect union working in defence showed a falling level of confidence in action to deter sexual harassment, from 47% in January 2024 to 39% in February 2025. Continue reading...

Abstract. Many international phenomena, from complex, interconnected processes to specific catastrophes, have been deemed “inevitable” by elites, policymak

Jaysley Beck, a bright, energetic and kind teenager, had plenty to complain about during her final few months in the Army. A senior NCO who was more than twice her age, the Royal Artillery Battery Sgt...

Failings in handling of 19-year-old’s sexual assault complaints have left family hoping her inquest can finally effect real change