Oral Answers to Questions

Tessa Munt Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am trying to help Members but they must help themselves. Extreme brevity is now required, not preambles. We need short questions and short answers.

[Tessa Munt (Wells) (LD)]

Edward Graham, a retired serviceman, was recently sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for 23 counts of sexual abuse, after a trial by a court martial. I understand that a court martial should be used for service personnel only for matters of military discipline, so will the Attorney-General have discussions with the Secretary of State for Justice and the Secretary of State for Defence to ensure that all future cases not involving matters of military discipline are investigated by the police and tried by the civilian courts?

[The Attorney-General]

Let me be as brief as I can, Mr Speaker. I understand that the only way of prosecuting this man was via a court martial, because the offences took place before the law had changed to allow for the prosecution of this type of offence in a civilian court in this country. So if a British court was to take it, it had to be a military court. It was a good example of the effective prosecution of historical abuse claims.