A teenage soldier believed to have taken her own life felt ‘trapped’ by the ‘creepy’ and ‘possessive’ behaviour of her boss, an inquest has heard.

Jaysley Beck was a 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner, and was found at Larkhill Camp in Wiltshire, UK, ten days before Christmas in 2021.

An Army report previously found she suffered an ‘intense period of unwelcome behaviour’ from Bombadier Ryan Mason and sait it was ‘almost certain this was a causal factor’ in Jaysley’s death.

An inquest further heard that she became ‘scared’ by ‘psychotic and possessive’ behaviour from her boss, and she was convinced he had hacked her phone.

On the first day of the inquest into her death, her mum, Leighann McCready, said her daughter ‘did not feel safe’ and had received 3,600 messages from Mr. Mason over a period of one month before her death.

According to Ms. McCready, her teenage daughter was giving Mr Mason emotional support for what she believed were mental health issues. Among the WhatsApp messages he sent to her in the 3 months leading up to her death, were the following:

In one message, Mr Mason told her: ‘Love you Jayse. As a friend.

In another, he wrote: ‘I’m renaming you in my phone as the magician.’

A couple of weeks later he wrote: ‘You’re amazing Jayse, I appreciate you so much, I love everything about you, even your flaws.

‘I will always be there along for the ride with you, I have said it before but you’re stuck with me forever now. I love you x As a friend, I love you.’

Eventually, Mr Mason’s lovebombing got so intense that the 19-year-old sent him the following on WhatsApp:

‘This whole falling in love with me, its becoming a bit too much, I have just come out of a relationship and I’m just not wanting to be involved in anything like this.

‘It’s weighing me down a little bit, I’ll be totally honest with you.’

‘Totally honest here, I just don’t want to hear how you feel about me.’

In another text, she wrote:

‘When you said you seen me leave camp I was a bit taken back like are you watching me when you say things like “You’re there” it’s just weird and the whole thing is just bizarre.’

And another after he wouldn’t let up:

‘It’s snapping me, I have replied to you and in the space of a couple of minutes you sent three texts and tried to phone me. Can you understand why I think it’s a bit too much?’

Ms McCready said her daughter ‘made us aware that he is becoming a creep’ and was ‘freaking her out’.

She told the inquest: ‘There was a time when she was on the phone to me and said “Mum I think he’s hacked my phone” because he knows exactly where I am standing and he’s meant to be away.’

Jaysley phoned her mum when she was staying in a hotel in Newbury on a work trip eight days before her death and was ‘upset and crying’. The teenager was ‘afraid something would happen, she thought he had tracked her phone and was listening to her conversation’, Ms McCready told the inquest.

The inquest was also shown a draft message from Jaysley’s phone that she intended to send to Mr Mason but never did:

‘I honestly feel trapped in this whole situation, I have tried to act as normal as possible because we are working together but nothing normal about this situation.

‘It’s possessive and psychotic, you have to understand it’s not normal behaviour.

‘I am struggling to deal with all of this, it’s taking a huge toll on my own mental health for many personal reasons. I need time out.’

Ms McCready noted Jaysley had also been suffering emotionally from the recent end of a relationship and the suicide of her uncle the previous year.

The hearing was also told Jaysley had reported a sergeant who put his hand ‘between her legs’ during a team-building trip in Hampshire four months before her death. That night, she was so scared to go back to her accomodation that she slept in her car.

Worse still, when Jaysley received an apology letter from the sergeant – who received a minor sanction – he signed if off by saying his ‘door was open’ for her. How f**** up is that?

Clearly there’s something very wrong with the culture in the British Army when a 19-year-old girl (who joined the army when was 16) can be treated in this way by her superiors, whose orders she is expected to follow.

Bombardier Ryan Mason sent Jaysley 3,600 texts in one month, which already sounds insane by itself before your realise it averages 120 texts a day. Anyone that doesn’t have the mental capacity to understand that they should stop texting when the other person ceases to respond/asks you to cool it surely has NO PLACE in a position of authority. We can only imagine how mentally exhausting and terrifying it was for the poor girl, especially after already enduring a sexual assault from another sergeant who was essentially let off.

The inquest continues this week so let’s hope justice is ultimately done. A young woman took her own life potentially because a man-child in a position of authority couldn’t accept her rejection and felt entitled to harass her over and over again. Absolutely gutting that she felt that this was her only way out.

To watch a US army sergeant assault a black man for being ‘in the wrong neighbourhood’, click HERE.