Complainant and other newcomers were made to drink from mess tin filled from paddling pool containing urine and vomit

Three Royal Marines have been sentenced to military detention for their part in an initiation ceremony in which a colleague was subjected to “40 minutes of depravity and naked humiliation”.



Carlo Nicholson, who was made to drink from a paddling pool full of urine and vomit, said he was left feeling suicidal after the “joining run” event, watched by 80 drunken men and carried out by 45 Commando, based at Royal Marine Condor in Arbroath, in May 2014.

Marine Ian Tennet, 22, L/Cpl Scott Simm, 26, and James Taylor, 27, who is now a lance corporal in the Royal Marines reserves, were sentenced for a charge of ill-treatment of a subordinate.

Tennet was sentenced to 11 months and two weeks’ detention, while Simm and Taylor were each sentenced to eight months.

A fourth defendant, former marine Ryan Logan, 25, was sentenced to 220 hours of unpaid community work for battery and disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind.

Sentencing the defendants at Portsmouth naval base’s court martial centre, the judge advocate, Robert Hill, said: “The suggestion has been made it was nothing more than a rite of passage, and its purpose was not to humiliate, harm or distress but to harness bonding, and is something all Royal Marines commandos have gone through – but it’s no more than conduct that brings disgrace on the commandos involved.”

He said the defendants had been described during the court hearing as scapegoats. “It is not the purpose of this court to set itself up as a board of inquiry,” he said. “It has been noted with considerable concern that more senior non-commissioned officers haven’t found their way to the court martial system. Had they done so, the likely position they would face is a starting point of a term of imprisonment.”

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Nicholson, who is suing the Ministry of Defence over his treatment, said: “The incident has left me feeling like I just want to be alone and I am pushing people away. This includes my girlfriend and daughter. As a direct result I have been having suicidal thoughts.

“I feel like the water-boarding was the point where I snapped because it was a physical fear and I was panicked.”

The 22-year-old, who has since left the service, added: “I have completely lost my faith in the brotherhood of the corps. When I first joined the marines, I intended to make a career out of it. However, I do not feel I can go back to work because wherever I go, I will always be that guy – the guy who reported it.”

James Bruce, representing Simm, who pleaded guilty, said: “His admissions show his remorse and maturity.” He said his client had continued to serve in the Royal Marines and was highly thought of by his commanding officer.

Kathy Bradshaw, representing Tennet, who was found guilty after a trial, said he had not become involved in the ill-treatment of Nicholson out of “malice or nastiness”.

She said: “He is not a bully. He didn’t do it because he had any bad feeling towards Mr Nicholson. He didn’t do it because he thought it was degrading or meant to be humiliating. He did it out of a lack of judgment in an ethos that the joining run was seen by the vast majority of the other joiners as a tradition, as a bonding experience.”

Lt Cdr Neil MacLennan, defending Taylor, from Birmingham, who now works as a security guard for a production company and who pleaded guilty, said he had sought to protect Nicholson.

“L/Cpl Taylor knew Mr Nicholson was generally disliked by the men. With a crowd of 80 drunken men surrounding this event, there was a real risk that matters may have very quickly escalated. He wanted to keep a watchful eye on Mr Nicholson as well as he could,” MacLennan said.

Fiona Edington, representing Logan, who pleaded guilty, said the water-boarding was “not article three torture, it was a very, very limited incident”.

During the initiation event, described in court as a “rite of passage”, Nicholson, along with other newcomers to the unit, was forced to run naked around the camp with bottles of milk and lemonade taped to his arms.

He was made to lie in the paddling pool containing urine and vomit while eggs were thrown at him, and to fight other marines while naked and covered in cooking oil.

He was also made to eat dessertspoons of chilli, cinnamon and curry powder, eat dog food out of a mess tin while on all fours, eat lard and swallow liquid through a funnel, and consume the contents of a mess tin filled from the paddling pool, which also contained a rollmop herring, lard and cider.

The court heard that Logan was solely convicted in relation to the “water-boarding incident”, in which he placed material over Nicholson’s face and poured water over it while others watched, but he was not involved in the other offences.