Soldier, 19, is dead after getting 3,600 unwanted texts from boss in a month.
In the strict form of military life, discipline and professionalism is always required.
However, underneath this well-organized environment, one’s personal struggles usually go unnoticed until it is too late.
The case was that of a 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck, whose life changed for the worse.
A young soldier with dreams, Beck enlisted in the Army at the young age of 16 and wanted to serve her country.
Her ardent effort and commitment paid off and she got a place in the 14th Regiment Royal Artillery by February 2020.
A year later she was taken on for the Corps Engagement Team, which appeared a good position.
However, what should have been a satisfying career in the military turned out to be a nightmare.
This nightmare started when she began to work under bombardier Ryan Mason.
First, Beck saw Mason as another boss, someone to report to.
However, with time, this professional relationship grew into something much more sinister.
Mason started to fill her with an overabundance of messages, invading her personal space.
Between October and December 2021, Beck was bombarded with frightening text messages from him.
In November, the tally was a staggering 3,600 messages – a number that left a lot of people aghast.
The character of such texts was unsettling; with obsessive undercurrents, and unwanted affections.
“Love you Jayse. As a friend”, Mason wrote in one message, testing the line between professionalism.
Another read was “You’re amazing Jayse, I appreciate you so much, I love everything about you, even your flaws”.
The more persistent Mason’s messages became, the greater Beck’s discomfort and anxiety was.
On 25th November, she challenged him face to face and left no doubt about her sentiments.
“This whole falling in love with me, it’s becoming a bit too much,” she said.
“I don’t want to hear how you feel about me,” she added, indicating her distress.
However, Mason did not stop being possessive and intrusiveness only appeared to increase.
Beck shared her fears with her mother, Leighann McCready, who later shared the fear of her daughter.
She felt that Mason was hiding and watching her, even following her phone.
By the seventh of December, while on a working stay at a Newbury hotel, Beck rang her mother crying.
Mason, she said, was “freaking her out”, and she felt trapped in the situation.
However, Mason’s persisting messages were not the only problem that Beck was facing.
In July 2021, she had reported of being s*xually assaulted by a sergeant at a training exercise.
The sergeant put his hand between her legs, a thing that was very disturbing to her.
However, the punishment was little, a minor sanction and an insincere apology letter.
Her hesitation to report Mason was because of fear of being labelled a “female trouble maker”.
She was afraid that saying something would affect her career and her name in the Army.
With more stressors coming, Beck’s mental state declined, and she was emotionally drained.
Later on, her mother explained how powerless she felt when watching her daughter struggle.
The unthinkable happened on 15th December 2021- Jaysley Beck was dead at Larkhill Camp.
A 2023 army service inquiry established that Mason’s behavior was one of the major causes of her de*th.
The report said that his “intense period of unwelcome behavior” was “almost certain” to have been a factor.
Her story provides an insight into the pressing need for even greater safeguards against harassment in the military.
Beck’s de*th is a bitter lesson about the hazards of unbridled abuse of power.
Her family still struggles for justice with the hope that her tragedy would prevent others from experiencing the same fate.