Lance Sergeant Liam Cruise-Taylor's bullying campaign has led to his demotion and jail sentence of 6 months after being arraigned before a tribunal. 

He was convicted after being found guilty of punching and twisting the nipples of seven young recruits in the Irish Guards (part of the household division of the army which provides protection for the Queen) during training exercises which took place between July 2016 and February 2017 at Catterick Infantry Centre, North Yorkshire.

During his trial, the court heard how he elbowed a soldier in the chest telling him to "stand up and take it like a man" when the blow caused him to double over.

The Sergeant who has served for over a decade in the Army was sentenced to six months' service detention and demoted to lance corporal after he admitted ill-treating subordinates at a court martial in April this year.

Lord Justice Davis said: ‘[A] recruit was also punched.  This guardsman was then grabbed by Cruise-Taylor by the nipples, who twisted them.

‘That guardsman said Cruise-Taylor regularly punched him and other recruits in the stomach.

'Cruise-Taylor said that he had suffered bullying and victimisation while in the ranks and a psychiatrist said this had triggered a ‘depressive illness.

'It is to be borne in mind that, taken overall, this was a bad case of bullying,' he said.

'A number of young recruits were involved while in training, and what happened happened over a considerable period of time.

'It cannot be said that what occurred here was isolated offending. Given the circumstances, reduction in rank was almost inevitable.

''No lance sergeant can possibly behave in the way he behaved - taking advantage of his rank and status with regard to raw recruits' he added.


Cruise-Taylor's lawyers wanted his sentence suspended and also to get him re-instated as a lance sergeant, but the judges at the Appeal court rejected this.