Army instructors sent to jail

TWO Parachute Regiment training instructors were yesterday jailed and ordered to be dismissed from the Army after being found guilty of assaulting and ill-treating new recruits.

Corporals Robert Mann, 27, and Stephen Cannon, 32, had subjected a platoon of teenage soldiers to a humiliating ordeal, a court-martial hearing at Aldershot, Hampshire, was told.

The two training instructors had turned the platoon out of bed at midnight and forced them to squat with arms outstretched for two hours. Some were rapped over the knuckles with a baseball bat by Cpl Mann while Cpl Cannon punched others in the chest.

After the six-day court-martial, Cpl Mann was convicted on three charges of common assault. Cpl Cannon was found guilty of ill-treating a soldier. Both were found guilty of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. Cpl Mann, of Bromsgrove, was jailed for six months, and Cpl Cannon, of Ormskirk, for 112 days.