Former female trainee in Royal Marines says sexual assault was dismissed as ‘high jinks’

When Isabel became a trainee for the Royal Marines band, she thought she was fulfilling a childhood dream. But within a few weeks the 18-year-old found herself subject to what she describes as a sexual assault, an incident that was rapidly dismissed by her commanding officers as “high jinks” – and subsequently felt ostracised to the point where she became suicidal.

Isabel, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, eventually simply walked off the base, feeling overwhelmed and unable to continue. Though it is about a decade since the original episode and several years since she received compensation, it is only now she feels confident enough to describe what happened.

“I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I’d obviously gone years just thinking I was a liar. It took a long time to actually recognise that what happened constitutes sexual assault and to deal with the level of cover-up that happened,” Isabel said.

It is a story that also raises uncomfortable questions for the Royal Marines, an elite unit whose titular head, or captain general, is the king, though the Royal Navy insists that it has done “a great deal of work” in the years since to provide better support for victims of sexual harassment or abuse.