Defence Forces member told ‘best thing you can do is forget it’ after rape complaint

A Defence Forces member who made a complaint about being raped by a noncommissioned officer (NCO) was told “the best thing you can do is forget all about it and get on with your life”, the Defence Forces Tribunal has heard.

The tribunal, presided over by Judge Ann Power, is charged with investigating how the organisation handled complaints of sexual harassment and bullying, as well as the culture surrounding these complaints.

A witness, granted anonymity to give testimony as ‘Mr H’, described two incidents of sexual abuse during Wednesday’s sitting of the tribunal.

He joined An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCÁ), now called the Army Reserve, in 1969 at the age of 16. He subsequently became full-time and was promoted to the rank of private, leaving the Defence Forces in 1974.

The alleged rape took place in August 1970, when he was stationed in a platoon in the Munster area.

He was taking part in a training camp to become a full-time private, with the site comprising of tents and small buildings, under the command of NCOs.

On the night in question, a Saturday, the man joined some colleagues in a local pub for drinks.

Upon returning around midnight, the acting sergeant instructed Mr H to join him in his quarters.

“I went in, there was a desk and a mattress on the floor. The next thing I remember was waking up and my clothes were down around my ankles… The acting sergeant was on top of me. I didn’t know what was happening. I pushed him off, put on my clothes and went out the door.

“I didn’t know what was after happening. When I went in it was around 12pm, when I came out the dawn was breaking.”

Asked by tribunal counsel Lalita Morgan Pillay, BL, if the description of the incident as rape in a previous submission was correct, Mr H replied: “Yes, it was.”

Asked why he did not report the incident at the time, he said: “You couldn’t talk to anyone. You couldn’t go to NCOs, they were all the one ... the NCOs, there was no one to talk to.

“You couldn’t complain, you had no access to officers, the NCOs were all bullies.”

He said he blocked out the incident for 25 years, before he started to have nightmares and flashbacks in 1995.

A doctor advised him to report the incident to An Garda Síochána, but he didn’t feel there was any point. After being admitted for inpatient care at a psychiatric facility, another doctor advised him to make a complaint at Collins Barracks.

Mr H couldn’t recall when this was, but it was either later in 1995 or early 1996.

When he told two military policemen at Collins Barracks about the sexual assault, he was told to wait in his car.

After about half an hour, the door opened and an Army chaplain got in.

“I told him I was seriously sexually assaulted and I wanted to make a complaint. He said ‘the best thing you can do is forget all about it and get on with your life’.”

He added: “I was suicidal after that… The only thing that kept me alive was going home to my wife and children. I wouldn’t be here today without them.”

Asked about what his feelings were about the advice from the chaplain, Mr H replied: “Outside of being an army officer, he was a man of god. You’d expect some sympathy from a priest… but he took the side of the Defence Forces, I suppose.”

In 2023, he went to a Cork Garda station to report the incident after speaking with a counsellor.

After going through the “raise a concern” mechanism on the Defence Forces website, he was eventually put in touch with two specialist gardaí working out of the same station, who he said were “very helpful and very professional” in helping him report the incident.

Mr H also recalled an incident involving an FCA orderly sergeant in 1972 or 1973.

“I was in bed on a Sunday morning, I woke up and the orderly sergeant was feeling my private parts. He wasn’t in the depot I was in, he had no business being there.

“I pushed him off me, I was getting a bit wiser I suppose, I pushed him off me. I never complained about that incident.”

Senior counsel Gareth Compton, who represents serving and former members of the Defence Forces, asked if he would have reported the orderly incident to the chaplain if he had promised to act on the rape complaint. “Maybe so,” Mr H replied. “If he had taken it seriously.”

A second man, who served as a gunner in the Defence Forces, testified about abuse at the hands of a superior, identified as ‘Sgt Maj Z’.

The incidents occurred over six years in the 1990s, in the sergeant major’s office.

Describing the first incident, the man said he was told to stand at attention against the wall.

“Next thing he came up and dropped his hand on my crotch area. I pushed his hands away, and he said ‘put your hands by your side’, he then tried to unhook my trousers.

“I kept fighting him off, he said ‘you’re dismissed and if you report it to anyone I’ll have you locked up in the Curragh’.

“He said ‘nobody will believe the word of a gunner over a sergeant major’.”

He said similar incidents took place in Sgt Maj Z’s office over the course of six years.

“There were 10 similar incidents, sometimes he would try to take his penis out,” the man said.

He said avoiding being alone with the sergeant major was a running joke among colleagues, and those who were called to the office would be mocked and told “get your vaseline, get your back to the wall”.

“I’m ashamed to say it, but I sometimes took part in this bullying to avoid being singled out.”

He described a culture where “you couldn’t make complaints”.

He said his marriage broke down, partly due to the trauma of the abuse, and he developed a problem with drugs and alcohol after leaving the Army in 1997.

The man took a High Court case against the sergeant major, the State, Minister for Defence and Attorney General.

The sergeant major was found to have sexually assaulted the man, but the State, Minister for Defence and Attorney General were not found vicariously liable.