Image source, Getty ImagesThe Army says it encourages anyone who has experienced or witnessed unacceptable or criminal behaviour to come forward
ByTom McArthur and Sima Kotecha, senior UK correspondent
Warning: This article contains sexual language and details of sexual assault
Wes Streeting has said he is “absolutely sickened” by reports of rape and sexual abuse of young female recruits at the Army Foundation College (AFC) in Harrogate.
Four women told the BBC they were sexually assaulted and harassed while attending the North Yorkshire college, and described a culture of misogyny and sexual violence.
The defence secretary said he would be “looking in detail specifically at what’s gone wrong at Harrogate, but also looking more broadly at how we lead a programme of culture change across our armed forces and across defence.”
The Army said “unacceptable and criminal behaviour has absolutely no place in our armed forces” and urged victims and witnesses to come forward.
AFC is the largest military training establishment for under-19s in the UK and it receives all the Army’s 16-year-old recruits.
North Yorkshire Police told the BBC in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request it had received 16 reports of sexual offences linked to the college in the year to June, including allegations of exposure, voyeurism and sexual assault.
No information was included on whether the reports had led to prosecutions.
A total of 176 complaints of inappropriate sexual behaviour at the college were made between January 2018 and June 2025, according to Ministry of Defence (MoD) data.
The women, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, all attended AFC over the last five years.
One woman, Tilly, told the BBC she was 17 when she was raped at AFC by several fellow soldiers who invited her into their room.
“They started taking my clothes off and then this led to them doing stuff I didn’t consent to.
“And then I was raped… by multiple junior soldiers, same age as me. It went on for hours. I felt like a piece of meat.”
Streeting said he sympathised with the women who had been “badly failed”, and praised them for speaking up.
“We have a duty to uphold the very highest standards in uniform and to treat every woman with the dignity and respect she deserves”, he added.
Earlier this week, Sarah Atherton, former MP for Wrexham, told the BBC that public confidence in the college could “only be restored through an independent inquiry”.
Atherton, who previously served in the Army’s Intelligence Corps, led a 2021 government review into the experiences of women in the armed forces.
Emma Lewell MP said: “If this was any other school or residential environment for children, it would have been closed down.”
