My soldier son was killed by his own comrades in a barbaric punishment known as 'beasting'

13 April 2012

So proud: But now Debra Williams cannot bear to look at photographs of her son Gavin in his army uniform

For Debra Williams, watching her 21-year-old son Gavin march in the parade to mark the end of his Army training was one of the proudest and happiest days of her life.

But now, the thought of seeing the DVD she bought as a memento of the occasion makes her feel physically sick.

When Gavin decided to join the Army, she had believed it would be the making of him, focusing his limitless but often directionless energy and providing the firm discipline she knew he needed.

But a little over a year later, he was dead – the victim of a brutal Army punishment that a judge last week condemned but which the military still claims does not happen.

Gavin died of heatstroke on July 3, 2006, after being put through a ‘beasting’ – an intensive, hour-and-a-half-long session of exercise – as punishment for drunken behaviour at his barracks in Tidworth, Wiltshire.

When he died his body temperature was 41.7C, well above the norm of 36.7C. This week, three of Private Williams’ non-commissioned officers, Provost Sergeant Russell Price, Sergeant Paul Blake and Corporal John Edwards, were acquitted at Winchester Crown Court of his manslaughter.

Following the verdict, the judge Mr Justice Royce criticised the Army for allowing ‘beasting’ to take place.

He also questioned why the three NCOs were in the dock while Captain Mark Davis – the senior officer who, the court was told, ordered Private Williams to be brought to him ‘panting like a dog’ – was in the process of being promoted.

The judge said: ‘The evidence has demonstrated that the practice of beasting, which clearly falls outside appropriate military discipline, was going on in these barracks openly and must have been known to senior officers. Lessons have to be learned from this case by the regiment and the Army. This must never be allowed to happen again.’

For Debra, 40, the anger she feels towards the Army for allowing her son to be subjected to a high-speed, 90-minute march in temperatures of 30C in full kit and carrying a rucksack is as fresh now as it was two years ago. 

Defiant: Debra Williams this week, calling for an inquest to rule that Gavin was killed unlawfully

Defiant: Debra Williams this week, calling for an inquest to rule that Gavin was killed unlawfully

‘I was so proud when I watched Gavin’s passing out parade – I was crying my eyes out and so was his younger sister Zeta,’ she says.

‘I believed the Army would be fantastic for him but now I wish he’d never joined. I think the whole institution is a disgrace and I am in no doubt that it killed him.

‘How can anyone believe that what happened to Gavin is an appropriate way of punishing a young man? It’s barbaric and it’s illegal.

‘In court, it was made clear that beasting happens quite openly all the time, yet senior officers continue to turn a blind eye towards it.

‘I can’t rest until it stops and I know that no other young person will suffer as Gavin did and no other parents will go through the living hell I’ve endured over the past two years.’

Debra paints a tragic picture of a young man who, like so many others, saw the Army as an escape route from his humdrum and directionless life in Hengoed, Mid-Glamorgan.

A Jack the Lad who left school with no qualifications and often landed himself in trouble because of drunken fights, Gavin’s future had seemed very uncertain before he discovered the Army. In it, he believed he had found, for the first time in his life, a career at which he could truly succeed; one that would allow him to leave behind the legacy of his troubled childhood.

But his mother now believes that where he hoped to discover adventure and the discipline he needed, he found the reality of Army life so mundane and boring that he longed to leave.

She says it was this that led him to shout drunkenly at a party guest of Capt Davis’s at an officers’ mess ball – and that led, ultimately, to his death the next day.

‘I trusted the Army and looked up to it but it let Gavin down so badly, first by allowing him to get drunk and misbehave out of sheer boredom and then by punishing him for it in such an inhumane way,’ she says.

Protective: Tragic Gavin Williams at home with his mother Debra

Protective: Tragic Gavin Williams at home with his mother Debra

‘He wasn’t perfect but he had a lot to give and now, thanks to the Army, the world will never see it.’

Debra admits Gavin had a difficult start in life. She was 16 when she had him in 1984, followed, five years later, by Zeta, who was born deaf. Throughout her children’s early years, her former partner was allegedly physically abusive towards her before leaving the family home when Gavin was 12.

She says: ‘What Gavin witnessed as a child was very tough. Then, after his father left, he had to grow up with no male role model. I had to do the best I could on my own. As a result, he considered himself the man of the house and was incredibly protective of me and Zeta.

‘He adored her from the moment she was born and would do anything he could to make life easier for her.

'Cheeky prankster': Gavin as a boy

'Cheeky prankster': Gavin as a boy

‘The three of us were extremely close and he was very loving, always cuddling us and making us laugh with his silliness. Gavin was very popular – he had loads of friends and was always at the centre of whatever was going on in our local community, which is very close-knit.

‘But he was easily led and often got himself into trouble. Although he was never a bad lad at heart, he was cheeky, loved playing pranks and he’d get into fights to defend his mates.

‘He was sporty but didn’t enjoy the academic side of school at all. So it wasn’t a surprise when he left at 16 without passing any GCSEs.’

After a few years of drifting aimlessly from one low-paid labouring job to another, in April 2004 Gavin decided to pursue the goal he had been talking about since he was 15 and join the Army. Initially, his entire family was thrilled, taking it as a sign that he had matured and was ready to accept responsibility for his future.

'He was very loving, always cuddling us'

Debra says: ‘I was delighted for him when he joined up. I knew he was bored kicking about in Wales and that he wanted something more from his life. He needed a purpose and I thought the Army was the perfect solution.

‘He could leave his past behind, travel the world and do a job he could be really good at. He was prepared to fight for his country and even potentially to die. He took it very seriously indeed.’

He was initially sent to Catterick in North Yorkshire for six months of basic training and appeared to thrive.

‘He loved every minute it. The routine of hard physical work every day really suited him and he excelled,’ says Debra. ‘I was thrilled because none of his friends had believed he would stick at it and even some of our relatives thought he would give up.

‘At the party after his passing out ceremony, the sergeants and corporals told me they were impressed with him. They said he was a real character with leadership qualities and that they could see him one day becoming a corporal. He’d always told me that he’d make something of himself one day, that he’d make me proud, and it was coming true.’

But Gavin’s enthusiasm began to wane as soon as he received his first posting, with the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Welsh Regiment at Lucknow barracks in Tidworth.

She says: ‘In Tidworth he seemed to be bored all the time. The regiment wasn’t preparing to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, so the recruits were given guard duties, then more or less left to their own devices.

‘I’d get texts from him all the time saying how bored he was. I wasn’t too worried – I just thought he’d get used to it and eventually start enjoying it.’

But Gavin began spending a great deal of time drinking with other soldiers at a pub close to the barracks.

He lost the fitness he had acquired during his basic training and started to put on weight. Over the following 18 months, he got into several fights and was placed on report for drunken behaviour and failing to turn up on time for his duties. Debra was aware he was getting into scrapes but believed him when he said there was nothing to worry about.

‘He would laugh it off and say, “Mum, it’ll be fine, it’s not a big deal.” I thought that as soon as he needed to knuckle down again, he would.

‘Now, though, I believe he was playing up deliberately. I think he was very disillusioned by his experience of the Army and was hoping his behaviour would get him kicked out.’

But in the week prior to his death, Debra says she did not hear from him at all, which was highly unusual. She left message after message on his mobile and still does not know why he never returned her calls.

On Monday, July 3, she received a devastating call from her brother Glen. ‘It was the hottest of the year,’ she says. ‘Glen told me he’d been called by a sergeant from Gavin’s barracks looking for my number.

‘I knew instantly something was very wrong. I was shaking as I dialled the number I’d been given. The sergeant who answered told me, “Gavin has collapsed and is seriously ill.” Without thinking, I said, “What have you done to him?” It was instinctive.’ Debra, by now frantic, called her boyfriend Adrian Needs, who began driving her to Salisbury hospital. On the way, she called the hospital and was put through to the doctor who had looked after Gavin.

'I was hysterical, just screaming and crying'

‘He said, “Is somebody with you?” I knew then that Gavin had died.

‘Adrian had to take the phone from me and was told that Gavin had died of heatstroke. I was hysterical, screaming and crying, then silent.

‘I think I was in shock. All I could think was that they’d got it wrong, that it was someone else.

‘When we arrived at the hospital, the doctor told us he had died after being “exercised” and had been brought in wearing his full battle kit.

‘A detective from Wiltshire police arrived and said, “Something has taken place which shouldn’t have.”

‘He told me a full investigation was under way and that three people from the barracks had been arrested.

‘I was stunned and devastated. I had believed the Army had a duty of care towards him. I never expected it to be responsible for his death.’

Next day, Debra had to identify her son’s body. ‘He looked like he was asleep and it was heartbreaking to realise that I couldn’t just wake him up,’ she says. ‘It was as if my life just stopped. I vowed then not to rest until I’d got to the bottom of how he died.’

In the days that followed, she learned that Gavin had died as a result of being ‘beasted’ and then physically restrained in the aftermath. It also emerged that traces of ecstasy in his body may have contributed to his death as a result of the intensive exercise.

'Someone killed Gavin and must be punished'

Debra says: ‘When I was told about the beasting, I was horrified. I’d never heard the word before and I didn’t understand how anyone could do that to another person.

‘The soldiers who put Gavin through it were supposed to be his comrades in arms. He was supposed to be able to trust them with his life if they were on the front line.

‘I knew the Army relied on discipline but I didn’t realise that included humiliating a young man and ignoring him when he was pleading with them to stop because he was feeling ill. How could anyone trust their superiors after that?

‘Nobody has disputed that he was beasted, nor that it was the beasting that caused his death – although the Army officially claims the practice isn’t condoned. I’m just so angry that nobody has been punished for it.

‘I miss him so much, his smile, his laugh and his sense of fun. I’m on anti-depressants and I have nightmares all the time. He was so protective of me but I couldn’t do anything to protect him when he needed me.

‘It has been my anger and determination to put an end to the practice of beasting by exposing it in court that has kept me going.’

Although Debra buried Gavin three months after his death, she has been unable to put a headstone on the grave because the defence team of one of the three NCOs charged with his manslaughter kept his brain as evidence.

When she returns home to Hengoed next week, she will arrange another burial. ‘At least now I can lay him to rest properly, the way he deserves,’ she says.

'Hung out to dry': Corporal John Edwards, Sergeant Russell Price and Sergeant Paul Blake were following orders, a jury decided this week

At the end of the NCOs’ trial this week – after Mr Justice Royce suggested in his summing up that they had been ‘hung out to dry’ by the Army – the jury decided they were following orders and could not be held responsible for Gavin’s death.

Debra says she was shattered by the verdict but insists she will not stop in her battle to win the justice she believes is owed to her son.

‘We’re planning to campaign for an inquest to be held because I want a coroner to say Gavin was killed unlawfully,’ she says.

‘I don’t care what it takes – someone killed Gavin and someone must be held accountable and punished. Only then will I feel I’ve done everything I can as a mother for my boy.’

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