Marines under fire for ritual beatings film A video of an initiation ceremony showing young Royal Marines forced to fight naked and one apparently beaten unconscious was condemned yesterday by embarrassed defence officials and senior officers.
But while the Ministry of Defence insisted its policy was one of "zero tolerance" on bullying, privately officials suggested the incident was a "a bit of fun that got out of hand". Although the episode took place last May, a criminal investigation by the military police was set up less than two weeks ago.
Defence officials said yesterday the ceremony was not part of any training programme and directed their fire at the whistleblower who gave the video to the News of the World, which published a full page of photographs. They say it took place at the end of the marines' 32 weeks' basic training and no officer or senior NCO was present.
However, they also made it plain they were concerned about the potential impact on recruitment and the further damage it has done to the image of the armed forces after a series of damaging reports of bullying at the army's Deepcut barracks in Surrey and Catterick in Yorkshire, and serious allegations, some proven, of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
According to the News of the World the video was filmed by a marine who watched the ceremony in a field at 42 Commando's base at Bickleigh Barracks in Devon. It shows two marines at the centre of a large group of men. All are naked save for one man in a surgeon's scrubs and one wearing a schoolgirl uniform.
At first the two marines fight with mats rolled around their arms but the man in the surgeon's outfit appears to instruct them to use bare fists. One of them seems to refuse and is kicked in the face. The attack appears to leave him unconscious.
The MoD said the Royal Marines took the matter "extremely seriously" and had a "zero tolerance policy on bullying and harassment". It added: "Bullying and harassment is not widespread within the armed forces. Behaviour of this kind will not be tolerated and every effort is made to apply this policy rigorously."
The former assistant chief of defence staff Lord Timothy Garden said the video showed the need for some form of independent complaints authority, a suggestion put forward earlier this year in response to the Deepcut controversy.
Lord Garden, who is the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman in the Lords, said he was concerned that such incidents may be happening because the military was so stretched. He said: "It means there are not necessarily the numbers of people during training to provide the level of supervision we used to have in the past."
Colonel Bob Stewart, who commanded British forces in Bosnia, said he was "horrified". "This is nothing to do with training. If it was some kind of party, the fun ended pretty quickly. Why are they naked for goodness sake?"
John Burnett, a former MP who served with 42 Commando, said: "This kind of activity is repugnant to the ethos of the Royal Marines. It has no place whatever in the Royal Marines."
The shadow defence secretary, Michael Ancram, called it "inexcusable ".
Senior armed forces officers have faced a series of claims of abuse, notably at the Deepcut barracks where four young recruits died between 1995 and 2002. There have been 23 deaths of recruits at Catterick since 1994.
An inquiry by the adult learning inspectorate earlier this year found that recruits to the British army are still subjected to a culture of bullying and racism despite repeated promises by senior officers to root it out.
The armed forces' own data shows that about three-quarters of all military personnel believe bullying and harassment take place. About one in 10 - 20,000 people across all three services - say they have been victims. Alleged victims have been paid a total of £1m in compensation over the past five years.
Babooning and hazing: pain of earning the badge
For as long as there have been warriors, there have been initiation ceremonies. The Vikings used to tie new crew members to the back of their ships and drag them through freezing water while tribespeople in Borneo forced their young men to do painful things with sharp sticks.
In modern armies the practice is still widespread. They are known by various terms - beasting, hazing, japping, joining runs, sprog olympics. In the 80s a number of soldiers claimed they had suffered during initiation. A 20-year-old said his genitals were burned, and he was indecently assaulted with a broomstick.
New rules banning such ceremonies were introduced but they have continued. At a court martial in February a "japping" was described in which the victim was tied to an ironing board and had a ball bearing gun fired at him. The victim was also alleged to have been indecently assaulted with a broom handle. Timothy Lyons, of the 29 Commando Regiment, who admitted taking part in the ritual, said it was seen as "fun" and an accepted part of military life.
Other rituals which have come to light include "babooning" in which the backsides of new soldiers are beaten until they are as red as baboons' bottoms. It has been claimed that recruits in a mounted regiment are stripped and covered with food which a horse eats off their bodies.
A former British Royal Marine NCO said: "There is a fine line between character-building and humiliation. We have all been on the receiving end of stuff which would make civilians cringe The Whorg - org whores unite !
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