A SCOTTISH regiment has been called in to deal with Libyan soldiers being trained at an English army base as five of the foreign troops appeared in court accused of rape and other sex assaults.
Troops from 2 Scots, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, had leave cancelled so they could back up military police struggling to control Libyan trainees who defied orders to remain at Bassingbourn Barracks in Cambridgeshire.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has now been forced to scrap the project after the court appearances.
Soldiers Moktar Ali Saad Mahmoud, 33, and Ibrahim Abogutila, 22, appeared at Cambridge Magistrates yesterday charged with raping a man in his 20s in a park in the university city on October 26.
Three other Libyans based at the barracks also appeared at the court in connection with alleged sex attacks on women in the city.
Two of them have already pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two women after they stole bicycles to reach Cambridge from the base 14 miles away.
Up to 2,000 soldiers had been due to undergo basic infantry and junior command training at Bassingbourn as part of an agreement reached at last year's G8 summit.
The Libyans soldiers were being trained by men from 3 Scots, the Black Watch, tasked with providing them with basic infantry skills and military leadership training.
The MoD said more than 300 Libyan Army cadets from Bassingbourn would be sent home early.
A spokesman said: "Training was initially expected to last until the end of November but we have agreed with the Libyan Government that it is best for all involved to bring forward the training completion date.
"The recruits will be returning to Libya in the coming days.
"And as part of our ongoing support for the Libyan government, we will review how best to train Libyan security forces - including whether training further tranches of recruits in the UK is the best way forward."
Andrew Lansley, Tory MP for South Cambridgeshire, who had called on the MoD to send the Libyan troops home, said he regretted the rolling 15-month scheme had not worked as had been hoped.
He added: "It is clear that the stipulation that there was to be no unauthorised exit from the base has not been adhered to and the consequences have been unacceptable.
"The purpose has not met its objectives, nor have MoD lived up to the promises made to us."
He said no further groups of military trainees should be brought to the UK from Libya.
Bassingbourn, which was used in Stanley Kubrick's film Full metal Jacket, closed as a UK military training camp in 2012.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article