Calls for an independent inquiry into the Army Foundation College (AFC) in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, have intensified after four young women told the BBC they were sexually assaulted and harassed there while training as teenagers. The women, who all attended AFC when they were 17 over the past five years, described a culture of misogyny and sexual violence. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said he was "absolutely sickened" by the reports and pledged to examine what had "gone wrong at Harrogate", while the Army says the allegations are "extremely distressing and serious".
The BBC has also reported that North Yorkshire Police received 16 reports of sexual offences linked to the college in the year to June, according to a Freedom of Information request, and that Ministry of Defence data recorded 176 complaints of inappropriate sexual behaviour at AFC between January 2018 and June 2025. According to a BBC report, of those 176 complaints, 32 were made against permanent staff and 144 against junior soldiers. No information was provided on whether the police reports led to prosecutions.
Sarah Atherton, the former MP who led a 2021 review into the experiences of women in the armed forces, said public confidence in the college could "only be restored through an independent inquiry". Emma Lewell, a Labour MP who sits on the Defence Committee, said an inquiry should be led by someone with significant safeguarding experience. Two Liberal Democrat MPs have also written to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting calling for an investigation into the "culture, leadership and safeguarding practices" at the college.
Unacceptable and criminal behaviour has "absolutely no place in our Armed Forces", an Army spokesperson said.
"People join in the hope of having a fantastic career and any such reports are unacceptable and go completely against everything the Army stands for," the spokesperson added.
AFC is the largest military training establishment for under-19s in the UK and it receives all the Army's 16-year-old recruits. There are currently 70 female junior soldiers at the Harrogate site out of a total of 889.
We have changed all the women's names to protect their identities.
What did Tilly say happened at AFC?
Ever since she was a small child, Tilly had always wanted to be a soldier.
"I liked the idea of being challenged and had always admired women in non-traditional roles," she says. "I'd always been into action films."
But she says her dream was shattered when she was raped at AFC by several fellow soldiers.
"They were like 'do you want to come into the room?' And me being a naive 17-year-old girl was like 'yeah fine',” Tilly recalls.
"They started taking my clothes off and then this led to them doing stuff I didn't consent to. There were a lot of them. They touched me in places, made inappropriate comments, calling me a thing rather than a girl.
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."
Tilly left the Army two weeks after the attack.
"I couldn't be in there. I spoke to my mum and she was like you need to leave," she says.
"I would have just been known as the girl that shagged loads of people - that's what I would have been known for the rest of my career, and that's not what happened."
The BBC understands Tilly reported the alleged rape to police but no charges were brought, partly because of what the Crown Prosecution Service later described as an "entirely inadequate" police investigation.
Tilly reached a financial settlement with North Yorkshire Police - with no admission of liability from the force.
Two of the other three women we spoke to also went to the police, but we are not reporting any details of the investigations to protect their identities.
What did Monica allege?
"He stood against the door so I couldn't get out," Monica tells Sima Kotecha
A second woman, Monica, says a fellow soldier trapped her in a room and attacked her.
"He stood against the door so I couldn't get out. He then pushed himself up against me, started kissing my face and touching me all over. He sexually assaulted me," she says.
"I managed to push him off. I'm not sure how because he's really strong."
Monica received an unrelated medical discharge from the college, but says this came as a relief after what she had been put through.
What did Amy and her mother say?
The third woman's story was told to us by her mother, Cheryl.
Her daughter, Amy, was sexually assaulted, she says, and had to navigate almost daily sexual harassment during her training.
Because the lock to Amy's room was not working, says Cheryl, "she found herself sleeping across the door to stop male soldiers coming in".
My daughter was "sold a dream" when she was recruited to the college, she adds, but it turned out to be the complete opposite in reality.
The Army says it encourages anyone who has experienced or witnessed unacceptable or criminal behaviour to come forward.
What did Ellie describe?
The fourth woman we have spoken to describes how misogynistic attitudes and behaviour of AFC staff rubbed off on some of the male teenagers.
In front of a group of new recruits in her first week at the college, Ellie - who says she was sexually assaulted and harassed at AFC - recalls one of the instructors saying: "It's all about the pussy and how much of it you can get."
Instructors would also mark girls' looks out of 10, she says, and would "walk into our dorms without knocking, and we'd be standing there just in our knickers - they would just stare".
Ellie says she had been desperate to be an infantry soldier.
"I wanted to serve my country and being a soldier meant I could do that at times of war. I wasn't a girly girl and it just seemed like a perfect fit for me."
But what happened at AFC made Ellie decide that a career in the Army was not for her.
The Army told the BBC: "We encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed unacceptable or criminal behaviour at the Army Foundation College to come forward."
Acknowledging that this can be difficult, it said several reforms had been introduced to support victims, including the Defence Serious Crime Command, providing specialist support through the justice process, outside of the Army chain of command.
What has the defence secretary said?
Wes Streeting said he was "absolutely sickened" by the reports of rape and sexual abuse of young female recruits at AFC. He said he sympathised with the women, who he said had been "badly failed", and praised them for speaking out.
"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: "I don't want anyone who has the ambition and talent to join our armed forces to be deterred, so it's contingent on us to make sure that we've got our act together."
Streeting 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 Ministry of Defence told the BBC that the college "welcomes external scrutiny and challenge", adding that AFC had in the last year "hosted the safeguarding bodies, parliamentarians, the Children's Commissioner's office and the Armed Forces Commissioner, as well as receiving an outstanding report from Ofsted".
The Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, said she would ensure the "appalling attacks" were investigated and "those responsible, including for failing to safeguard these girls, are held to account". She said all children living away from home had a right to contact her team for support, and that she would make sure all girls at AFC could do so.
Why are politicians calling for an inquiry?
Sarah Atherton said concerns at AFC had been raised years ago and that later data and complaints suggested the problems had continued without adequate action.
"An independent inquiry," she said, "is the best way to establish the facts, restore public confidence and ensure the Army can recruit and retain the talented young people it needs."
"Parents, staff and recruits deserve clear answers, accountability where necessary, and confidence that every possible lesson has been learned," she added.
Lewell said: "I think as a matter of urgency there should be an independent inquiry into the college led by someone with significant safeguarding experience, and they need to be able to speak to the children there.
"There's been an ongoing complaints for a long time now around sexual assault, bullying, sexual abuse and physical abuse so it's a matter of urgency."
She also said that if AFC was "any other school or residential environment for children, it would have been closed down".
The Liberal Democrat letter was written by Tom Gordon, who represents Harrogate and Knaresborough, and James MacCleary, the party's defence spokesman. They said "it is essential that the full facts are established openly and that meaningful action is taken to restore confidence".
They added that any inquiry should examine whether there are systemic barriers preventing victims from coming forward, whether reporting mechanisms are fit for purpose and whether safeguarding arrangements are consistently being implemented.
What do the convictions at AFC add to the picture?
Several adult instructors at AFC have been convicted by courts martial of physical and sexual violence in the past five years - including Cpl Daniel Conway and Cpl Simon Bartram.
In 2023, Conway was jailed for more than seven years for raping a colleague while she was sleeping. In the same year, Bartram was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to 20 months in military detention. According to a report tracking allegations at the college, Bartram's January 2023 conviction related to the sexual exploitation of six under-18 female recruits, and the pattern of abuse at AFC has been documented since 2014.
None of the allegations in our investigation relate to these instructors, but the four women say the convictions raise serious questions about the college's culture.
A sexist attitude towards women is encouraged by some male instructors, believes Tilly.
After she was raped, she says she heard an instructor going round saying: "Have you heard about that slag who shagged all those blokes?"
"Coming from an instructor is just wrong - it sends out the wrong message about women and it teaches boys this attitude that we're only good for one thing," she says.
If you are affected by any of the issues in this story, information and support is available at BBC Action Line
Cheryl says her daughter, Amy, also reported being subjected to misogynistic verbal abuse from staff.
"She'd be standing in line in the corridor and she'd be picked out as a massive slag or slapper because [instructors] would say it was her fault people were looking at her.
She was told that 'every year there is one that [the male recruits] want and it looks like this year you're the one they want.'
It just broke my heart, because what you forget about is that she's just a child."
There are currently 70 female junior soldiers at AFC out of 889
Serious questions need to be asked about whether the college should continue operating, says Labour MP Emma Lewell, who sits on the Defence Committee.
"If this was anywhere else, it would have been closed down by now, or someone would have been in there looking in-depth at what is going on," she says.
"As a matter of urgency there should be an independent inquiry into the college led by someone with significant safeguarding experience, and they need to be able to speak to the children there."
The UK government defines a child as anyone under 18.
The Army told the BBC a visit to AFC by the Children's Commissioner and safeguarding authorities in January 2026 had recognised "the culture of care and the confidence junior soldiers have in raising concerns".
It added that the college's "robust discipline system" has been graded "outstanding" by the schools' inspectorate, Ofsted, which visits the college every three years.
How does this fit into wider concerns about the armed forces?
The allegations at AFC form part of wider, long-running concerns around the safety of women within the armed forces.
A 2021 review by MPs reported cases of rape, sexual exploitation of under 18s, and women being drugged before being assaulted. The review - colloquially known as the Atherton report after the lead, former MP Sarah Atherton - concluded that women were being "denied justice" by a "woefully inadequate" military complaints process. According to a written submission to Parliament, 22 recruits, mostly girls, were victims of sexual offences at AFC in 2021, and in the 13 months to August 2023 there were 13 sexual offences referred to North Yorkshire Police, including nine rapes.
Five years on, there are "still very, very serious concerns, as the experiences of these girls [at AFC] indicate", says Emma Norton, a solicitor at the Centre for Military Justice, which provides legal support to former armed forces personnel.
"These are tough women - they expect to be treated robustly, so this isn't about people complaining about things you and I might have difficulty with.
We are talking about sustained sexual harassment and extremely serious sexual violence - some of which is being perpetrated against children - so the stakes couldn't actually be higher for the Army".
"Concern at AFC Harrogate were raised years ago, and subsequent data and complaints suggest the problems continued without adequate action," Atherton said.
Last year, an ex-army sergeant major was jailed for six months for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old soldier, who later took her own life.
Warrant Officer Michael Webber, 43, pinned down Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck and tried to kiss her in July 2021. She was found dead five months later in her barracks at Larkhill, Wiltshire.
The inquest into her death ruled the sexual assault and the Army's failure to take appropriate action "more than minimally" contributed to her taking her life.
Jaysley's mother, Leighann McCready, told BBC Breakfast Jaysley was 19 when she reported what happened to her chain of command, but she was "disbelieved" and branded "a female trouble maker".
"This is the problem that soldiers are facing - what they are going to be branded afterwards," her mother said.
"If a junior solider can follow their policies and procedures then those above should do exactly the same. Had they had done, I believe our daughter would have still been alive", she added.
The Army said AFC remains committed to creating a professional, supportive, and safe environment for all recruits.
"Any suggestion otherwise contradicts the values of respect and inclusivity that we stand for," it said.
These concerns about how allegations involving military personnel are handled echo separate scrutiny of cases involving foreign forces stationed in the UK: UK ministers and police chiefs are reviewing why British forces have handed some serious crime cases involving US military personnel to American investigators and courts martial, and experts say US military courts in the UK often charge alleged rape as sexual assault, raising similar questions about victims' access to justice within military justice systems.
Now out of the armed forces, Tilly is rebuilding her life but is still deeply affected by her brief time at AFC.
The Army's claims of tackling inequality, she says, while promoting inclusivity and diversity, were not what she experienced in Harrogate.
"I know if I had a daughter, I would never send her to the Army," she says.
If you have more information about this story, you can reach Sima by email at Sima.Kotecha@bbc.co.uk
Ashleigh Percival-Borley, a veteran who served for 13 years in the British Army as a sergeant and multi-disciplinary instructor, said the allegations had undermined confidence in the institution.
"Incidents like this have really taken my confidence out of the institution and that makes me really sad," she told Radio 4's Today programme.
She said there was a "level of frustration" from women who wanted to serve in the army, and that hearing the allegations had "sickened" her as a female veteran and former instructor.
She said the Army needed to show "the embodiment of the army's values and standards" in training environments.
Key Facts
- Four young women told the BBC they were sexually assaulted or harassed at AFC Harrogate when they were 17.
- North Yorkshire Police received 16 sexual offence reports linked to the college in the year to June.
- MoD data recorded 176 complaints of inappropriate sexual behaviour between January 2018 and June 2025, of which 32 involved permanent staff and 144 involved junior soldiers.
- Sarah Atherton, Emma Lewell, and the Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza are among those calling for accountability, while Wes Streeting has pledged a review of the college and wider culture change.
- The Army says unacceptable and criminal behaviour has no place in the Armed Forces.
