Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images Violence against women and girls Alleged abuse victims at British military school in Germany tell of agonising fight for justice Two women, now in their 50s, say MoD refuses to take responsibility for abuse they suffered as children
Prefer the Guardian on Google Anne and Jane* were 10 years old when a member of staff connected with their British military school in Bünde, Germany is alleged to have singled them out and sexually abused them.
Now in their 50s, the women say he coerced them into keeping silent, and for decades they had only discussed their experiences with one another. “He said if we ever told anybody, then our fathers would lose their jobs and they would be kicked out of the army,” Jane said. “Being two young 10-year-old girls who basically followed their fathers around the world, their jobs were our lives.”
But five years ago, with her father retired from military service, Anne found out the man was still alive and decided to come forward to report the alleged abuse. She said she did so in the hope that she and Jane would finally see justice.
More than 40 years later, they are affected by what they allege happened to them.
“He was my first sexual encounter at the age of 10,” Jane said. “I struggled with relationships at an early age … I’ve never ever been able to be in a loving relationship.”
Similarly, Anne said that from a young age “there was a spiral of self-destruction” and she had been left traumatised. As a school governor, she said smells from her childhood brought back memories of the alleged abuse. “I remember walking through the school corridor, and I just felt sick,” she said.
But despite their efforts to bring their alleged abuser to justice, a joint investigation by the Guardian and openDemocracy has found that he cannot be prosecuted, because although he was a British citizen, employed by the British army , incomplete records of his employment have repeatedly halted investigations into the allegations.
Nato rules state that countries with armed forces abroad can apply their laws to people who fall under their jurisdiction, including serving members of the military and civilian employees. But the absence of the man’s employment contract, along with no proof that he paid tax to the British crown, meant the police could not prove he was employed on a Ministry of Defence (MoD) London contract rather than a locally employed contract.
The women say the MoD refuses to take responsibility for the abuse they allege they suffered while under its care.
Anne and Jane believe their alleged abuser deliberately targeted them because they were isolated from other children at the school.
“I was shy, very, very shy and introverted, and also struggled with all the moving,” Anne said. “I was in quite a bad place anyway by the time I got to Germany.”
She said it initially felt “so exciting to be singled out by this incredibly charismatic man. Everyone sort of swooned in his presence, adults and children alike.”
She added: “When he did turn his gaze very singly on me, I absolutely fell for it.”
The man’s interactions with the girls became sexual, they said, with much of the alleged abuse taking place in his office.
“Once we’d get into that room, he’d lock the door from the inside,” Jane said, “and then it went very, very dark very quickly.”
Jane can still remember the number plate of his car, reciting it effor…