Last updated at 15:37 29 May 2007

Military police are investigating a mobile phone video of an alleged sex assault on a young recruit at Britain's biggest army base.

The shocking incident, involving trainee soldiers with the elite Parachute Regiment, raises new questions about a culture of bullying and abuse in the army.

The two-minute recording is reported to show a recruit being pinned down by comrades over a table in their barracks while an attempt is made to rape him. There is laughter and cheering as others egg on the group to continue what they are doing.

Scroll down for more...



The footage ends with the semi-naked victim lying on a bed and groaning 'help me' while laughing soldiers goad him, it is claimed.

Footage was sent between soldiers at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire and an inquiry was launched when a mother was shown it by her soldier son and reported the incident to the authorities.

Six men from a platoon of Paras are shown in the film and they have already been quizzed by military police.

The 'assault' is is said to have taken place after the group returned from a drinking session last month.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "I can confirm that an alleged incident recorded on a mobile phone is being investigated by the Royal Military Police. I am not prepared to comment on the allegations or speculate about the outcome of any investigation."

However, the inquiry appears unlikely to lead to a court martial. A military source revealed the alleged victim was not making a complaint and investigators have been told the people involved had all consented to what happened.

The platoon is due to be sent to Afghanistan next year after completing combat training at Catterick.

Two years ago military police were called in after a video emerged showing recruits at Catterick Garrison being blindfolded and humiliated by instructors.

The soldiers were allegedly forced to kneel or sit on top of one another while instructors shouted and swore at them, in what army sources described as a roleplaying training session.

In March 2005 a committee of MPs accused the army of failing to protect young recruits from bullying and demanded an independent complaints commission.

The Commons Defence Committee inquiry, which followed the mysterious deaths of four young soliders at Deepcut Barracks in Surrey, criticised complaints procedures in the army and a culture in which anyone complaining of bullying is seen as 'weak.'

While families of young soldiers who have died at the Yorkshire army base in recent years have repeatedly demanded a public inquiry amid allegations of a bullying culture. There were 23 non-combat deaths at Catterick in the 10 years from 1994.

The army has also faced probes into serious sex assaults within its ranks. Gym instructor Leslie Skinner was jailed for four and a half years after admitting indecent assaults on three soldiers at Deepcut in October 2004.

Skinner 'groomed' young male recruits and got them drunk before sexually assaulting them.