Marines ‘want to protect the chain of command’, she says. ‘They don’t want to protect women’
When Isabel became a trainee for the Royal Marines band, she thought she was fulfilling a childhood dream. But within a few weeks the 18-year-old found herself subject to what she describes as a sexual assault, an incident that was rapidly dismissed by her commanding officers as “high jinks” – and subsequently felt ostracised to the point where she became suicidal.
Isabel, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, eventually simply walked off the base, feeling overwhelmed and unable to continue. Though it is about a decade since the original episode and several years since she received compensation, it is only now she feels confident enough to describe what happened.
