Women Allege Rape, Sexual Harassment, Voyeurism At UK's Teen Army College

Tilly (names to protect identity) said she wanted to be a soldier ever since she was a small child, but her dream was shattered when she was raped by multiple fellow soldiers for "several hours" at the academy.

06 Aug 2026, 09:21 · NDTV

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Multiple women at Army Foundation College allege systemic misogyny and sexual violence by soldiers and staff
Police received 16 sexual offence reports linked to the college in one year, with 176 complaints since 2018
Women described sexist attitudes encouraged by instructors and a dangerous culture towards female recruits

London:

One of Britain's biggest army training colleges for teenagers is under the scanner after multiple women recruits came forward alleging a systematic culture of misogyny and sexual violence against them by junior soldiers and staff members alike.

At least four women who attended the Army Foundation College (AFC) at Harrogate, North Yorkshire, over the past five years told the BBC that they were subjected to gang-rape, sexual harassment and voyeurism when they were aged 17.

All women, who have left the army since then, told the British publication that the war school has a dangerous culture of misogyny and sexual violence, encouraged by staff members.

AFC is the largest military training establishment for under-19s in the UK. The war school receives all the Army's 16-year-old recruits and currently has at least 70 female junior soldiers out of a total of 889 recruits.

These distressing accounts add to the concerns surrounding the safety of women in the British army, after the country's forst official survey on the issue found that as many as 67 per cent of women serving in the British military have been subjected to at least one instance of non-consensual sexualised behaviour by a male colleague in the past year.

Pattern of Violence

The BBC probe into AFC's working found that North Yorkshire Police received 16 reports of sexual offences linked to the college in the year to June. Those reported offences include allegations of exposure, voyeurism, and sexual assault.

But a request under the Freedom of Information Act did not reveal whether these reports had led to prosecutions.

UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) data showed that a total of 176 complaints of inappropriate sexual behaviour at the college were made between January 2018 and June 2025, with thirty-two of them made against permanent staff and 144 against junior soldiers.

Women's account

Tilly (names to protect identity) said she wanted to be a soldier ever since she was a small child, but her dream was shattered when she was raped by multiple fellow soldiers for "several hours" at the academy.

"They were like, 'Do you want to come into the room?'" And me being a naive 17-year-old girl was like, "Yeah, fine," she recalled.

"They started taking my clothes off, and then this led to them doing stuff I didn't consent to. There were a lot of them. They touched me in places, made inappropriate comments, calling me a thing rather than a girl. And then I was raped... by multiple junior soldiers, same age as me. It went on for hours. I felt like a piece of meat," Tilly added.

She left the Army two weeks after the attack, the exact timeframe of which was not disclosed to protect her identity.

"I couldn't be in there. I spoke to my mum, and she was like, 'You need to leave. I would have just been known as the girl that shagged loads of people - that's what I would have been known for the rest of my career, and that's not what happened," she added.

Tilly noted that a sexist attitude towards women is encouraged by some male instructors at the academy. She recalled that after she was raped, she heard an instructor going around saying, "Have you heard about that slag who shagged all those blokes?"

"Coming from an instructor is just wrong -- it sends out the wrong message about women, and it teaches boys this attitude that we're only good for one thing," she said.

According to the report, Tilly reported the alleged rape to police, but no charges were brought. She later reached a financial settlement with North Yorkshire Police, with no admission of liability from the force.

A second woman (name changed to Monica) recalled that a fellow soldier trapped her in a room and attacked her.

"He stood against the door so I couldn't get out. He then pushed himself up against me, started kissing my face, and touching me all over. He sexually assaulted me. I managed to push him off. I'm not sure how because he's really strong," she said.

Monica left the college after an unrelated medical discharge, which she described as a "relief" after what she had been put through.

Amy's story was told to us by her mother, Cheryl, who said her daughter was sexually assaulted and had to navigate sexual harassment almost daily during her training.

Cheryl says the lock in Amy's room was not working, because of which she had to sleep across the door to stop male soldiers from coming in. Amy was also reportedly subjected to misogynistic verbal abuse from staff.

"She'd be standing in line in the corridor, and she'd be picked out as a massive slag or slapper because [instructors] would say it was her fault people were looking at her. She was told that "every year there is one that [the male recruits] want, and it looks like this year you're the one they want," Cheryl said.

"It just broke my heart, because what you forget about is that she's just a child," she added. Britain recognised any person below the age of 18 as a child.

The fourth woman, who was also sexually assaulted and harassed at AFC, noted that misogynistic attitudes and behaviour of AFC staff rubbed off on some of the male teenagers. Ellie recalled that on her first week at college, one of the instructors told a group of recruits that, "It's all about the pussy and how much of it you can get."

She said that staff members would also mark girls' looks out of 10 and would walk into their dorms without knocking, where "we'd be standing there just in our knickers - they would just stare".

Ellie said what happened at AFC made her decide that a career in the Army was not for her.

Violent History

Over the past five years, several adult instructors at AFC have been convicted by courts-martial of physical and sexual violence. In 2023, Corporal Daniel Conway received over seven years of jail time for raping a colleague while she was sleeping. In the same year, Corporal Simon Bartram was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 20 months in military detention.

Army Response

In a statement to the BBC, the British Army spokesperson called the reports of sexual violence "extremely distressing and serious."

"Unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our Armed Forces. People join in the hope of having a fantastic career, and any such reports are unacceptable and go completely against everything the Army stands for," said the Army spokesperson.

They added that the British Army encourages anyone who has experienced or witnessed unacceptable or criminal behaviour at the Army Foundation College to come forward.

Acknowledging that this can be difficult, the Army said several reforms had been introduced to support victims, including the Defence Serious Crime Command, providing specialist support through the justice process, outside of the Army chain of command.

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