Senior Royal Marines dodge jail over ‘big red’ bare bum bar beatings of new joiners
Excessive use of the paddle left some junior marines with bruising so bad they were unable to sit down for two weeks
FOUR senior Marines have avoided jail at a court martialled for failing to stop junior ranks bashing each other’s bare bottoms in a barracks 'ritual'.
Sergeants Richard Melia and Ian Spence and Corporals Robert Wake and John Arnett pleaded guilty to four counts of failing to perform their public duty during celebrations of the Marine Corp's 350th anniversary in 2014.
They were sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for a year.
Wake and Melia were also dismissed from the services, while Spence and Arnett have already left.
Junior marines would stand with their trousers around their ankles while trying to impress others with a story or a sing-a-long. Failing to entertain fellow marines would end with a "reefing" from "Big Red".
The number of hits would be determined by a throw of a dice.
Four suffered cuts which left them unable to sit down and lay on their backs for two weeks.
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The game took place at 42 Commando barracks in Bickleigh, near Plymouth.
Judge Advocate Robert Hill told the court martial at Portsmouth Naval Base that the behaviour was not a form of "character building, forming a strong spirit of camaraderie in an elite brotherhood of soldiers".
He said: "It needs to be understood this type of behaviour will be dealt with by the court martial for what it is, it's a calculated course of conduct designed to inflict gratuitous violence on new joiners."
The court heard that the four defendants "encouraged" the activities which left four marines with bruising and cuts to their bottoms which led to them having difficulty sitting down and lying on their backs for two weeks.
Lieutenant Colonel Victoria Phillips, prosecuting, described how up to 50 marines gathered at a barracks bar.
Marines would stand, with their trousers and underwear around their ankles, on a table surrounded by other marines and would then proceed to tell a story or sing a song - and those who 'failed' to entertain the others would be beaten.
The court also heard Spence poured vodka on the injuries of another Marine who asked for antiseptic after one such 'reefing'.
Spence had pleaded guilty to ill-treatment of a subordinate but was given no separate penalty for this offence.