The Royal Artillery Gunner received thousands of ‘disturbing’ texts from her boss
A teenage soldier was discovered dead at base camp after she received a number of ‘unwelcome’ texts from her boss, an inquest heard.
Jaysley Beck was a 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner, and was found at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire, UK, on 15 December 2021.
An inquest further heard that she became ‘scared’ by ‘psychotic and possessive’ behaviour from her boss, as she believed he had hacked her phone.
The ‘intense period’ of messaging was from Bombardier Ryan Mason, and a service inquiry report published in October 2023 found it to be a ‘casual factor’ in her passing, Sky News reports.
It is said that Beck was sent a number of texts between October and December 2021, with 3,600 messages in November alone.
During the inquest, which took place in Salisbury, Gunner Beck’s mother, Leighann McCready, said that her daughter ‘did not feel safe’ as time went on.
The WhatsApp messages included a number of intrusive messages from Mason, who Beck helped to support as she said he had mental health problems.
Some of the texts from Mason read: “Love you Jayse. As a friend,” and “I will always be there along for the ride with you, I have said it before but you’re stuck with me forever now. I love you x As a friend, I love you.”
One particular message prompted a response, as she wrote on 25 November: “This whole falling in love with me, its becoming a bit too much, I have just come out of a relationship and I’m just not wanting to be involved in anything like this.
“It’s weighing me down a little bit, I’ll be totally honest with you.
“Totally honest here, I just don’t want to hear how you feel about me.”
McCready said that Mason ‘was overstepping’, saying that her daughter told the family that he was ‘becoming a creep’.
Beck even wrote that she was afraid that Mason was watching her, and on 4 December, she said: “It’s snapping me, I have replied to you and in the space of a couple of minutes you sent three texts and tried to phone me. Can you understand why I think it’s a bit too much?”
The mum even admitted that her daughter called to suggest that Mason has hacked her phone, calling him ‘a bit obsessive’, and believed that he would organise work trips with her more often than with other colleagues.
On 7 December, Beck called her mum ‘upset and crying’, fearing something was going to happen as she became more worried that her phone was being tracked.
The inquest also saw a draft text that she planned to send Mason, which read: “I honestly feel trapped in this whole situation, I have tried to act as normal as possible because we are working together but nothing normal about this situation.
“It’s possessive and psychotic, you have to understand it’s not normal behaviour.
“I am struggling to deal with all of this, it’s taking a huge toll on my own mental health for many personal reasons. I need time out.”
Beck didn’t complain though, as she feared for her reputation in the army, and McCready explained that Beck was also upset by her uncle’s suicide in August 2020 and just got out of a relationship.
The inquest further heard that the 19-year-old complained of being assaulted by a sergeant on a team-building stay near Emsworth, where he put his hand ‘between her legs’ in July 2021.
The sergeant in question only received a minor sanction and an apology letter from him wasn’t received well by Beck, as he said that ‘his door was open’ to her. The Army service inquiry report detailed this as ‘possibly a factor’ that may have stopped her from reporting on ‘other events that happened subsequently’.
Though her family reject it, the report said that family problems, which included a bereavement, caused her death.
They also said that there were three factors that contributed, which was the ‘significant strain’ of a sexual relationship with a married colleague in the last few weeks of her life, a relationship which ended in November 2021 and involved ‘repeated allegations of unfaithfulness on the part of the boyfriend’, and drinking habits that included ‘binge drinking’.
It was stated that Beck has no mental health conditions and did not seek welfare support.
The inquest is ongoing.