Soldier ‘degraded and bullied’ before Catterick death, inquest told

A soldier found dead in his barracks was “degraded” by his superior officers, with one posting videos of his “humiliations” in a WhatsApp group, an inquest has heard.

L/Cpl Bernard Mongan’s decomposing body was found in his room at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, on 23 January 2020 – three weeks after he was last seen.

Asked about how the 33-year-old had been treated during his time at Catterick his former colleague, Steven Timmerman, told North Yorkshire Coroners’ Court “bullying would be an understatement”.

He said the father-of-three was made to clean senior officers’ cars in his own time and “forced” to do extra runs in his lunch break without being given time to eat.

Mr Timmerman, who lived in the same accommodation block as L/Cpl Mongan, was one of three people who discovered his body.

He told the inquest L/Cpl Mongan in the weeks and months before his death he had been “made to do additional work in his own time” and was “shouted, screamed and swore at in front of quite a few people”.

He said: “He was given tasks that he shouldn’t have been given to do.”

Mr Timmerman said he could remember three occasions when L/Cpl Mongan was given a military Land Rover to clean that was not his.

He said that on a military exercise around three months before his death, L/Cpl Mongan was “shouted and screamed at” in front of other soldiers by his own superior officers in his own department, for carrying out an order from another department.

Mr Timmerman said that on the same exercise L/Cpl Mongan was told to help other departments set up their radio masts, but was refused help with his own and told to “do it himself”.

He told the inquest L/Cpl Mongan was put on remedial physical training after failing a fitness test, but was also “forced to go for an extra run on the same day and given no time for having lunch and breakfast”.

He described L/Cpl Mongan as a “cuddly teddy bear” who may have been a “soft target” because he was “a nice guy who took things easier”.

He said L/Cpl Mongan had issues with two sergeants and was “undermined” and “come down on very harshly”, and had been considering a service complaint.

Asked if he was bullied, Mr Timmerman said: “I would say that was an understatement.”

He told the hearing: “They spoke to Bernie as if he was inconsequential,” adding that he had been “degraded”.

Asked if he was aware one officer “had been posting videos on a WhatsApp group of humiliations of Bernie”, Mr Timmerman said: “I didn’t know about that.”

The inquest also heard L/Cpl Mongan – a Royal Signals soldier who had served in Iraq – was due to start an attachment with the Army’s 77 Brigade in Berkshire on 7 January 2020.

Mr Timmerman said his friend, who was known as Bernie, “couldn’t wait to go down to 77 Brigade”.

He said: “There was a noticeable change in him, he was happy, he was ready to move away.”

Mr Timmerman said he last saw L/Cpl Mongan at the barracks on 27 December.

He said he had returned from a trip to Scotland on 5 January, but was not expecting to see L/Cpl Mongan as he was due to be on detachment by then.

He said he had started to notice an “unusual smell” in the block after a few days, and on 22 January followed it down L/Cpl Mongan’s corridor to realise it was coming from inside his room.

Mr Timmerman said once he realised where the smell was coming from he spoke to a superior officer about getting the keys for the room, and the two of them went in with a civilian staff member the next morning to find L/Cpl Mongan’s body lying face down on his bed.

Opening the inquest on 2 June, senior coroner Jon Heath considered whether the soldier could have died from poisoning after barbiturates including Promethezene and Phenobarbital, which have a sedating effect, were found in his system.

But paramedic Paul Spence told the court there was “no evidence of self-harm or suicide”.

The inquest heard L/Cpl Mongan had tried to kill himself several times and spent time at a recovery centre run by Help For Heroes.

Capt Ben Atkin, RSM for L/Cpl Mongan’s battalion, said he was never told the soldier had made several suicide attempts before arriving in the unit.

Asked if that was a significant failure in communication, he said: “It’s an issue, it’s a failing, the system should have worked.”

Capt Atkin said the only time L/Cpl Mongan was discussed in regular welfare meetings was when he was the victim of an assault by two soldiers outside the battalion while on a night out in Catterick.

Asked about L/Cpl Mongan being made to do extra runs, Capt Atkin said: “Physical exercise is not allowed to be used in the British Army as a punishment.

“It’s completely inappropriate and if I had seen it, I would have stopped it.”

The inquest continues.