King's Guard accused of abusing recruits cleared of ill-treatment

2023-01-16

‘Strict’ King’s Guard, 36, accused of abusing teen Army recruits and ‘manhandling one for wearing a woolly hat under his helmet’ is cleared of four charges of ill-treatment but admits two of negligently performing a duty

Lance Sergeant Ryan Harley admitted to negligently performing a duty
Signaller Lennox Clancy was punished by LSgt Harley for wearing a woolly hat
Signaller Clancy told Bulford Military Court he was made to crawl around a track
LSgt Harley also denied kicking two female trainees and another male cadet

A ‘strict’ King’s Guard accused of abusing teenage Army recruits has been given a formal warning by a military court.

Lance Sergeant Ryan Harley, 36, has been cleared of four charges of ill-treatment but admitted two counts of negligently performing a duty at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire.

He was accused of manhandling one cadet after he was found wearing a woolly hat under his helmet while he was an instructor at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, which has faced a slew of abuse claims.

Signaller Lennox Clancy, who was 17 at the time, was punished by LSgt Harley for wearing the hat and was ordered to ‘leopard crawl’ – where you move flat on your stomach in a movement like the animal – around a track. However, LSgt Harley accused him of doing the wrong manoeuvre.

Lance Sergeant Ryan Harley was accused of manhandling one cadet after he was found wearing a woolly hat under his helmet

Signaller Lennox Clancy, then a 17-year-old cadet, told the court he was forced to leopard crawl around a running track

Prosecuting counsel Lieutenant Jamie Brotherton previously told Bulford Military Court that LSgt Harley was ‘prone to flashes of anger’ and his punishments went ‘far beyond what was expected’.

LSgt Harley told the court martial he was just trying to get the best out of his recruits. While acknowledging that he should not have given out the punishment, he said he was concerned for Signaller Clancy’s health.

He told the court: ‘I saw Clancy with (the woolly hat) on. He could go down with a heat injury. It was a duty of care.’

Signaller Clancy claimed LSgt Harley had ‘grabbed him by the neck’ and shouted at him for doing a ‘monkey crawl’ on all fours, which LSgt Harley said did not happen. He also denied kicking two female trainees and another male cadet, all of whom were under 18 at the time.

LSgt Harley has been cleared of four charges of ill-treatment but admitted two of negligently performing a duty at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire (pictured)

LSgt Harley, who has served in the training wing of the Irish Guards since November 2021 and was recently awarded the Brigade Commander’s Coin, told the court: ‘I was in control at all times. I believe I acted with total professionalism.’

However, the section commander admitted inviting recruits to ‘have a go’ when he became ‘frustrated’ with them – though he claimed he was not actually asking the teenagers out for a fight but to motivate them.

‘When I made those comments it wasn’t in a malicious way,’ he said.

‘I used it as reverse psychology. I’m hard but fair. I wasn’t aggressive. I’m a diligent individual. I want to develop them to be the best. I was never a bully to anybody in all my time.’

Following a four-day trial, he was cleared of four charges of ill-treatment of a subordinate.

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