Woman breaks down in tears after soldiers gang raped her and said 'keep your mouth shut'

A woman broke down in tears after telling a tribunal she was gang raped by soldiers when she was 19. The woman, referred to as Ms Y, told a Defence Forces Tribunal in Ireland on Wednesday (June 10) she fell pregnant as a result of the ordeal and had a termination.

A soldier herself at the time, the woman told the tribunal she did not know the identities of her attackers and didn’t have any evidence. She said: “What happened to me should not have happened.”

The woman was a member of the Reserve Defence Forces for around two and a half years from about 1995.

She joined the Permanent Defence Forces in the 1990s, remaining with the full-time branch of Ireland’s Armed Forces until the late 2010s, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

The woman was giving evidence to a Tribunal of Inquiry established by the Irish government in July 2023 to examine abuse complaint processes in Ireland’s Defence Forces, which are mainly made up the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and Reserve.

Set up in response to concerns raised by an RTÉ Radio 1 documentary broadcast in 2021, the tribunal is examining allegations sexism and bullying was widespread and inadequately investigated along with cases of sexual assault and rape.

According to transcripts published this week, Ms Y told the tribunal one of her alleged rapists warned her after the attack that she would be kicked out of the army if she said anything.

Her dream role, Ms Y said she believed the threat and that she would lose her job if she reported the gang-rape.

The woman told the tribunal she would love to see an independent body set up within Ireland’s Defence Forces to handle complaints.

Justice Ann Power later heard from a man, referred to as Mr R, who joined the Defence Forces in 1998.

He told the tribunal he woke up twice while sleeping in barracks to someone touching his privates and “anal regions”.

The man said he reported what happened to a sergeant who allegedly told him not raise the issue again or he would lose his job.

Oral hearings are taking place in the current phase of the tribunal before an investigation report with recommendations is presented to Ireland’s Taoiseach no more than three years after the inquiry was established.