The British Army’s Officer Commanding of the Cyprus Joint Police unit told a junior colleague to stop acting “like a rape victim” after they refused a drink, reports the Daily Telegraph.
According to the paper, Major Simon McMahon made the remark to a non-commissioned officer while intoxicated during an event at the sergeant’s mess in Episkopi, a British base near Limassol.
The incident took place last April.
A military court in Catterick also heard that McMahon entered a ‘heated discussion’ with the Regimental sergeant major on the same evening. McMahon is said to have attempted to coerce the NCOs into continue drinking in the mess, telling one colleague to stop ‘acting like a rape victim,’ the Telegraph reports.
According to the Daily Express, McMahon also trapped a female soldier against a wall and berated her at the event in Episkopi barracks, but she did not pursue a complaint.
The court martial heard McMahon had over a decade of unblemished service after graduating from from the Army college at Sandhurst.
Bases Protest
Separately, British military installations in Cyprus were branded ‘bases of death’ in the headline of a leading feature on the Euronews website this week.
The report, citing several articles, including by DeclassifiedUK and Haaretz, claims London and Washington are supporting Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza with weapons and intelligence from Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
The bases, part of the Cyprus independence settlement in 1960, provide a strategic link for the West in the eastern Mediterranean. Both bases provide Britain with important radar and communication facilities.
