Glasgow-born Army Sergeant jailed for sex attacks on female recruits
An Army recruitment sergeant who served in Iraq and Afghanistan has been jailed for 11 and a half years for a string of sexual assaults on female recruits.
An Army recruitment sergeant who served in Iraq and Afghanistan has been jailed for 11 and a half years for a string of sexual assaults on female recruits.
Edwin Mee, 46, was convicted of 16 offences including rape following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court last year.
The Glasgow-born officer used his power to "abuse and bully'' women as young as 15, mostly from abroad but based in Croydon, south London.
Judge Alistair McCreath told Mee he had acted in a way that was "demeaning'' and "distressing'' for the victims, including one woman who had been abused "dreadfully''.
Mee, with long white hair and a white beard, showed no emotion as he was sentenced.
The divorced father-of-five carried out a series of sex attacks on women aged from 15 to their early 20s in 2010 and 2011.
His campaign of abuse began by spanking women on the bottom and escalated to raping a vulnerable recruit.
Judge McCreath said there no evidence that mental health problems Mee developed during his military career "had bearing at all on the offences that have brought you before me''.
He said: "The offences you committed were against nine young women, all of whom were seeking to join the Army. All came under your direct control as a recruitment officer.
"It was a situation of real and important trust. What you did to each one constituted a serious abuse of that trust.''