CAN the Armed Forces be trusted to police themselves or try alleged abusers in their own courts?

One of the biggest investigations into the alleged abuse of teenage Army recruits in Britain has collapsed after the Royal Military Police bungled the investigation.

Sixteen instructors at the Army Foundation College, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, were accused of slapping and punching 28 recruits.

The recruits, aged 16 or 17, also claimed they were spat at, grabbed by the throat, forced to eat manure and had their faces submerged in mud.

However, it took two years to interview the soldiers involved under caution and another year before they were told they were being charged.

In addition, handwritten accounts made by some recruits shortly after the alleged abuse have never been found and the military court heard some recruits claim they were threatened into giving statements and to appear as witnesses.

Some Army training is by its nature secretive and brutal, which makes it vital that allegations of mistreatment are investigated openly and with independence.

The collapse of the case suggests lessons have not been learned since the discredited Deepcut investigation into the deaths of young recruits at a barracks in Surrey.

It should act as a wake-up call for the Ministry of Defence and it should force a rethink about the Armed Forces’ in-house system of justice.