Royal Marine trainee self-harmed before being found dead in Devon

There is not an expectation that Royal Marine instructors should shout and swear at recruits during their training, a senior officer has told an inquest into the death of a teenage recruit. Colonel Innes Catton, the commandant of the Commando Training Centre, in Lympstone, said the non-commissioned officers selected to train new Royal Marine recruits were “handpicked for their empathy and emotional intelligence”.

An inquest into the death of 18-year-old trainee Connor Clark heard that he had self-harmed before his body was found next to the railway line by the Commando Training Centre. The inquest previously heard he received more “thrashings” – a physical punishment from instructors – than others because he made more mistakes. Recruits described the instructors being “in their face” shouting and swearing calling them a “f****** twat, prick or punk” and “c***”.

Senior Coroner Philip Spinney asked the witness: “It is not lost on me that the Royal Marines are some of the most elite troops in the world, but I would like to get a sense for the reason for that method of training and that approach to training.”

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Col Catton replied: “Those methods are not the methods we would choose to use to train some of the best infantry in Nato. As I understand it inappropriate language has been one of the key themes that has come out. There is no requirement for that. It is certainly not expected, and we don’t want that.”

Mr Clark was just three weeks into his military career when his body was found on a railway line adjacent to the Lympstone base on the morning of June 12 2021. The 18-year-old, from Norfolk, was on the recruit orientation phase (ROP) course that all Marines undertake before they begin their initial training.

Days before his death, he had misplaced a blank firing adapter for his rifle and had made comments about being a “failure” and the “worst recruit”. Col Catton said Royal Marine training had undergone a “fundamental shift” in the last two decades.

“We want people to join, and we need these bright young people, and we are very fortunate to attract some of the very best of society. There is a responsibility there to give them the very best instruction.

“If I was to think more broadly about what we do at the Commando Training Centre with that initial entry, what we are really doing is helping them realise their potential. Some of that training is very hard and some of the psychologically around it is very hard and very uncomfortable.”

Col Catton was asked where the balance lay between producing resilient Marines and exercising a duty of care.

“On specifically language and shouting, there is a need to get them ready for the environment they are going to go into,” he said.

“In certain instances, I would categorically tell our instructors they don’t need to swear, you don’t need to shout, there are sometimes and down to their judgment, I can see where that would add a certain bit of drive and atmosphere to the training they are delivering. Let me be really clear. The ROP was specifically designed to be physically and psychologically progressive.”

The inquest has heard that two days before Mr Clark died he went to the medical centre with an arm injury and admitted he had made worse with a knife to avoid duties. Mr Spinney asked why none of the instructors seemed to notice Mr Clark was struggling that week.

“No matter how much we pour into the front end to ease the introduction to the Commando Training Centre and the Royal Marines they all come their own expectations,” Col Catton replied. “Elite is not a word we would use but it is word often connected to us. People have all sorts of expectations of themselves and the institution. The ROP instructors are handpicked for their empathy and emotional intelligence.

“Our instructors know the value of a good shake of the shoulder and ‘good effort’ and what that means to a recruit and picking them up. If you speak with the senior instructors, if you want to gain the recruits’ attention you don’t give them 50 press-ups in 15 minutes – they have been conditioned to do that – what you do is give them an extra locker inspection.

“That actually is incredibly inconvenient. You deny them shore leave or delay shore leave. Those are the sanctions that really bite.

“If a troop had done something that was seen as a real offence those are the sorts of punishments used, rather than 45 minutes of running up a hill.”

During the medical examination by an experienced Royal Marine locum, Mr Clark admitted he had self-harmed but that information was not passed up the chain of command.

“It would not be my usual practice to share any medical information with a training team unless the patient has specifically consented to this,” Surgeon Commander Jon Bedford said.

“The impression was that Recruit Clark did not wish for any information to be shared with the ROP training team. It is clear that I did not adhere to the guidance and thus made a poor and a wrong decision in not seeking a case conference.”

Reviewing that evidence, Surgeon Captain Matthew Turner said Mr Clark should have received a mental health assessment. “Once the mental health assessment has been done a case conference should be convened with the medical services, the divisional system, welfare and the chaplaincy,” he said.

The inquest was adjourned until next week.