Bullies and Cowards



Here's a remarkable report from The Sunday Times which tells the story of a young paratrooper who was horribly wounded in Afghanistan, but had to summon up the courage to face another battle against bullies and cowards on his own side, senior officers in the British Army.  

So it just goes to show that people in high places and in positions of authority don't always behave with integrity and professionalism, sometimes they lie and cover things up to protect their own selfish interests.

I take my hat off to Tom Neathaway and hope he enjoys great success and happiness in his new civilian life, and well done too to the retired Brigadier Colin Findlay who eventually lifted the lid on the whole affair.

And what that proves is the importance of having an independent procedure for dealing with complaints against powerful institutions because 'daylight' is still the best disinfectant as Lord Nolan once said. 


My hardest battle — beating the army bullies and their lies

Wounded paratrooper Tom Neathway has won a long fight against persecution and cover-up. He tells Francesca Angelini how attitudes in the military must change


By Francesca Angelini - The Sunday Times
Neathway, who lost three limbs in Helmand, says he would still be in the army if his complaint had not been mishandled (Adrian Sherratt )

At the start of this month, two copies of a 45-page document containing the outcome of a military hearing were printed for dispatch. One was sent by post to the complainant Tom Neathway’s barrister, Fiona Edington. The other, in a gesture that was to have almost as profound an impact as the apology on behalf of the army that the document contained, was hand-delivered to Neathway at his red-brick bungalow on the outskirts of Worcester by Colin Findlay, a retired brigadier who had administered the hearing.

“I read through the document and was stunned. Then Brigadier Findlay told me he had come down to give it to me in person because he wanted to tell me that he thought I was an incredible person, a complete inspiration to everyone, and how gutted he was that I had gone through this. I was really, really made up,” says Neathway.

It is nearly three years to the day since Neathway, a 30-year-old former corporal in the Parachute Regiment who lost both legs and an arm in Helmand in July 2008 when a booby-trapped sandbag blew up beneath him, first made a formal complaint of bullying to the army. The ensuing fight to get his allegations dealt with properly was tougher than Neathway imagined possible and ultimately led to his leaving the army, a move he had never intended to make despite his injuries.

“Since this started, it’s something I can never get out of my head,” explains Neathway. “They had to be dragged kicking and screaming to an oral hearing . . . They had told so many lies and finally it all unfolded.”

The outcome of the closed-doors hearing was in no way ambiguous: the service complaints panel of two serving officers and an independent member concluded Neathway had been bullied by Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) Alistair Hutcheson and wronged by his commanding officer, Major John Chetty, whose investigations into the case constituted a “professional failing” and whose behaviour towards witnesses was deemed “wholly inappropriate”.

Since the findings were announced, Neathway has heard from many fellow soldiers saying they too have been bullied but are unsure what to do or whom to turn to. “I’ve had a hell of a lot of emails saying, ‘Well done on going through with this, but I could really do with some help with what happened to me’,” says Neathway.

Earlier this year, the service complaints commissioner — an independent official watchdog overseeing the handling of grievances — announced that reported cases of bullying, harassment and discrimination in the army had increased significantly over the previous year and that the complaints system was failing.

Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, announced plans in March — when still defence secretary — to give the service complaints commissioner the powers of an ombudsman. These powers, however, are not legally binding and Neathway believes the changes are not enough.

“The army cannot be allowed to police itself because if they want to cover something up, they can do so,” he says forcefully. His advice to those who have complained of bullying is to “stick with it” but he is acutely aware that he was in a unique position.

“I was a wounded soldier with a profile and very strong support from a number of places and I struggled to get a complaint through. What chance does a young private have? The army can just sweep it under the carpet . . . If you’re a soldier in a battalion, it’s near impossible because you can be ostracised.”

The bullying by Hutcheson began in 2011, soon after he became RSM with the parachute training support unit at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, which Neathway had joined when he returned to work in 2009.

“I think he was jealous. Whenever old boys would come back and visit, usually they’d go to visit the RSM but, because of the publicity I’d been getting, they’d come and see me and weren’t interested in [Hutcheson].

“The army cannot be allowed to police itself because if they want to cover something up, they can do so,” says Neathway

“Then I had a weird relationship with the hierarchy within the military. I was attending all these events — events I was told to attend — and I got to know quite a few high-ranking people on a personal level as well. They’d call me by my first name and would ring me up and have a joke, and I don’t think [Hutcheson] appreciated that,” explains Neathway.

It is not hard to see why Neathway was so highly valued by the military. From the time he was injured, he had exhibited an intense, admirable determination to remain in the army and get on with his rehabilitation. Coupled with good looks and a personable, gentle demeanour, he became an inspirational poster-boy.

Even when Neathway was on leave or his whereabouts known, Hutcheson insisted on constant phone calls to ascertain where he was, and made numerous negative remarks about Neathway’s work ethic and his uniform, which Neathway found difficult to wear because of his injuries.

But what finally prompted Neathway to lodge a complaint was when Hutcheson told him: “You’re not much of a paratrooper any more.” The service complaints panel found that Hutcheson had lied when he denied he had made the comment and further concluded that Neathway “placed enormous significance and attachment” to his identity as a paratrooper, an “identity that was shared and understood” by Hutcheson. It was a remark calculated to hurt.

“I was angry and upset. Had it been another time I might have lashed out or done something else I’d regret,” says Neathway.

The serious failure in the chain of command came from Chetty, who, despite knowing Hutcheson for 20 years, was initially appointed to look into the complaint.

He warned Neathway that he would be moved from the specially adapted facilities at RAF Brize Norton to the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment’s base at Colchester, Essex, if he decided to go ahead with the complaint. Chetty later dismissed Neathway’s allegations as “vexatious or malicious”, a conclusion the panel found no evidence for.

In October 2011, Neathway moved into a room at the Colchester base that was so small he found putting on his prosthetic legs incredibly difficult; he had to crawl to a bathroom at the end of the corridor in front of other soldiers to have a shower.

“I had gone from being a corporal in the reconnaissance platoon to being this injured guy shuffling down a corridor . . . I felt very small.” For Neathway, even worse than the bullying was the handling of his complaint. “What sickens me most is the cover-up that came afterwards . . . They tried to bury it,” he says.

Neathway became so frustrated that he decided to leave the army, though he and his supporters continued to call for an oral hearing.

In 2013, Brigadier Greville Bibby was appointed to review the allegations. He wrote a report commending Hutcheson and questioning the integrity of Neathway’s witnesses and evidence. Neathway’s civilian witnesses complained. The report was duly quashed and, remarkably, this year Bibby wrote a letter apologising to the witnesses and saying he admired their “courage and honesty” in highlighting his “oversight”. Bibby resigned from the army in August.

Were it not for the way the complaint was handled, Neathway says he would still be in the army. He has retrained as a gamekeeper and continues with his charity work. “I struggle to get work as a gamekeeper because of my injuries. So I go the gym every day and thrash myself,” he says.

He has now received the apology from the military. Hutcheson has left the army, although Chetty continues to serve. The Ministry of Defence says an officer unconnected with the events will investigate the recommendations arising from the panel’s decision.

Now Neathway wants changes to the way complaints are handled, claiming too few grievances reach the panel. “I want to see the individuals punished and for an independent complaints system to be set up. For all this to have been for something, there needs to be lessons learnt.”


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