A British Army instructor was on Friday cleared of attacking a young cadet by repeatedly hitting him over the head with a paddle during a “banterous” canoeing session.
Corporal Adam Price walked free after a board at a court martial found him not guilty of causing actual bodily harm by striking Connor Mills up to five times after the new recruit was said to have tried to capsize his craft.
The trainee soldier was left with a cut above his eye in the incident which took place as part of a “free for all” on a lake in Wales just eight weeks after he joined the military.
Bulford Military Court, Wilts, heard the incident happened on an adventure training week in September last year.
Flipping the vessels
A group of instructors including Cpl Price had taken their new recruits out on to the water at Sennybridge in Brecon on a “brisk but sunny day” where they spent an hour performing manoeuvres in their canoes.
This included flipping the vessels over in a “playful” fashion, the court heard, which then “disintegrated” into a “mess around”.
The court heard as part of this, Recruit Mills dived into the water from his canoe, swam up to 33 year old Cpl Price’s craft – which contained another cadet as well – and started rocking it.
During the trial, prosecutor Flight Lieutenant Andrew Otchie said: “Corporal Price hit him with his paddle four or five times and struck him once on the forehead.
“He had a 1.5cm cut above his right eyebrow
“Price denies striking him and said he didn’t know how the wound was caused. It was no accident. It wasn’t deliberate but it was reckless and a lack of judgement and as a result, Mills was injured.”
A female recruit who had been involved in the exercise told the court it had been a “banterous” session which she felt became “quite aggressive”.
‘Lack of discipline’
Cpl Price, of the Army Training Centre in Pirbright, Surrey, denied a single charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The 6ft 4ins Army instructor admitted there had been a “lack of discipline” among those involved in the exercise but insisted they had just been having fun and he had not caused Recruit Mills’ injury.
He said: “I think it was immature and unprofessional.”
After Recruit Mills was struck, he said: “I saw the blood, but I can’t be sure what paddle hit him or if he was hit by a paddle.
“But it was likely a paddle. Both paddles on our canoe were on Mills’ side to counteract the capsizing – my paddle was getting stabbed into the water.
“He was grabbing onto the side.
“I saw him at the end of the day to check on his welfare but I didn’t apologise – as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t hit him so I didn’t have anything to apologise for.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk