Royal Marines ‘whipped and forced to masturbate to gay pornography’ as punishments

Royal Marines were hung upside down, whipped and forced to masturbate to gay pornography as punishments for minor faults, a court martial has been told.

Soldiers were also allegedly ordered to shave off all their body hair for issues such as dropping equipment or failing tests.

Corporals Philip Beer, 34, and Danny Foster, 30, stand accused of overseeing a nightly gathering of their 43 Commando troop called “family time”, during which they dealt with “professional failings” unofficially.

One punishment was allegedly named Django, after Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar winning film about slavery, Django Unchained, and required victims to be hung upside down and be whipped.

(Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

The acts were part of a perverse version of Deal Or No Deal in which soldiers picked a box at random and were then forced to do the act detailed in the box.

Portsmouth Military Court was told one soldier would play The Banker, handing out punishments to fellow troops as part of the “kangaroo court”.

One punishment involved the men being forced to perform a sex act while watching gay pornography on a laptop.

The soldier who was last to ‘finish’ masturabting to the explicit same-sex films would be forced to perform an additional punishment, it has been claimed.

Lt Col Coombes said: “This case concerns the ill treatment of two marines by the accused, who were troop corporals in 43 Commando at the time.

“During the course of their deployment on a security operation at bases including Faslane and Coulport, the marines would take part in a nightly gathering known as family time.


“This served as an unofficial way of dealing with any professional failings that may have happened, ranging from not wiping up a coffee stain to not looking after troop equipment properly.

“Both the accused were involved in the running of family time.

“The first charge relates to a group of marines being forced to [perform a sex act] to gay porn, which was shown to them on a laptop.

“When one of them told Foster ‘I ain’t doing it’, Foster told him ‘you f****** are’.

“The second charge involves a further punishment called Django, which involved a victim having to hang upside down from a bar and be reefed, otherwise known as being whipped, with a rubber gym mat.

“The punishment derived from the film called Django Unchained, in which during one scene a black slave is chained upside down and whipped.

“This was imposed after a game of Deal or No Deal, which involved a marine standing at the front of the room picking box numbers like they do on the show.

“A person playing the banker could offer punishments throughout the game – in this incident the complainant tried to swap his box, which was part of the game, but Foster refused to allow him to do this and instead imposed Django, which was the offered punishment.

“In the third charge, another marine was given the ‘new born baby’ punishment and was required to shave off all the hair on his body.

“The complainant had two boxes left in a game of Deal or No Deal, when Beer, who was playing the banker, made an offer of the new born baby punishment.

“When the complainant was not willing to accept it, Beer told him he was going to receive it anyway.

“The final charge relates to the previous one, when Beer asked the complainant if he had shaved all his hair.

“The complainant said he had spent an hour and a half shaving and had tried his best, but when checked he had not got all the hair.

“He was given 15 minutes to shave the remaining hair, but refused – saying he had gone above and beyond already.

“Corporal Beer told him to go outside because he was to be given a ‘thrashing’, which involved him running up and down a hill in full weapons gear and carrying 20 large water bottles both up and down.

“Both the defendants oversaw this and it took the complainant around four hours to complete.”

Foster denies three counts of ill treatment of a subordinate, while Beer denies two counts of the same charge.

The trial continues.