Court martial appeal court finds original sentence given to Caroline Salisbury, wife of British army corporal, was too lenient

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The wife of an army corporal has been sent to prison for three years for having sex with a 14-year-old boy after a suspended sentence was ruled to be too lenient.

Caroline Salisbury, who was 25 at the time, met the teenager on a garrison bus in Germany, groomed him via social media and had sexual intercourse with him on several occasions.

She had originally been given a two-year suspended sentence but the attorney general, Jeremy Wright QC, granted permission for an appeal under the unduly lenient sentences provisions.

Although Salisbury is a civilian, the case was originally heard at a court martial in Colchester, Essex, in March. Dependents of serving soldiers are subject to military regulations in the service civilian court in overseas garrisons.

She was working as a bus monitor, escorting the children of other soldiers to and from school. She befriended the boy and exchanged messages with him via social media sites.

She told him that he should not tell anyone of their relationship or her children would be taken from her. When their relationship came to light, she tried to delete the messages they had exchanged and told a friend and the investigating police that the victim had raped her.

She pleaded guilty to four offences of sexual activity with a boy under the age of 16 over a three-week period in 2013.

The appeal against sentence was heard by the court martial appeal court sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London.



Sir Brian Leveson, sitting with Mr Justice Kenneth Parker and Mr Justice Stewart, said that Salisbury had no previous convictions. She had been estranged from her husband at the time of the offences.



Speaking after the hearing, Wright said: “Caroline Salisbury, [now] a 28-year-old woman, clearly took advantage of a teenager.

“I referred the case to the court martial appeal court as being unduly lenient because the original sentence failed to fully reflect the degree of planning and the serious breach of trust in these offences.

“The fact that court martial appeal court has imposed an immediate prison term on Caroline Salisbury sends out a strong message that teenagers have a right to be protected from sexual abuse.”