Records of gay military sackings deleted by Ministry of Defence

Military constabulary records of work unit who were dismissed from the Armed Forces for being cheery person been destroyed, BBC News has been told.

Veterans who requested documents astir investigations and interrogations into them by the subject constabulary person been told the files were deleted successful 2010.

The Ministry of Defence told the BBC it had a ineligible work to guarantee the details were erased from work records.

But 1 veterans' radical said: "To many, this whitethorn consciousness similar a cover-up."

The MoD lone revealed the information had been destroyed aft 2 veterans contacted BBC News to accidental they had been incapable to get records of subject investigations into their sexuality.

Campaign radical Fighting with Pride said, without the information, it could beryllium hard for its members to reclaim mislaid pensions oregon compensation from the government.

Until 2000, radical who were cheery were barred from serving successful the military. An autarkic reappraisal is presently looking astatine however the Armed Forces dealt with members of the LGBT+ community.

Jean Macdonald was a lance corporal successful the Women's Royal Army Corps. But successful 1981 she was dismissed from the work for being gay.

"All of a abrupt you've mislaid your full career, you've mislaid your friends, you've mislaid your accommodation, you know, your full mode of beingness - it's conscionable afloat of shame," she told the BBC.

After years of mediocre intelligence wellness she was diagnosed with analyzable PTSD. And successful May this year, she requested her implicit work records from the MoD.

Earlier this month, she received an email saying each grounds of the probe into her by the Royal Military Police was destroyed successful 2010. The email said it followed an bid from the "Defence Police Chiefs' Council".

It added: "All investigations into offences relating solely to sexuality... were to beryllium removed from our systems and deleted from the records of the affected work personnel."

A hunt of the work constabulary database produced lone 1 document, which elaborate the reasons for her dismissal. It read: "Conducting oneself disgracefully - unnatural act."

Ms Macdonald said it near her feeling "invisible". "We're a spot of hidden history".

The BBC has besides spoken to different veteran, who besides discovered his Military Police Service grounds had been destroyed.

Tremaine Cornish, 66, was a backstage successful the Royal Army Catering Corps, and besides passed the All Arms Commando course. He joined astatine the property of 15 and was dismissed successful 1977, having been accused of being homosexual.

He said the Army "took distant my life, my prospects, my consciousness of worth".

When helium applied for his implicit work records this year, helium was besides told papers relating to the constabulary probe were "safely and appropriately disposed of".

He was told it was done "in accordance with policing and information extortion principles".

However, Mr Cornish said it reinforced "the organization homophobia we were attacked with". "It makes maine furious - furious astir the state, furious astir the institution, astir the forces that we had signed up to."

In January this year, the authorities announced it was mounting up an autarkic reappraisal to look into the interaction of the subject prohibition connected members of the LGBT+ community.

Lord Etherton, who is starring the review, has begun gathering grounds and is apt to look astatine imaginable means of compensation.

A MoD spokesperson said the "historical argumentation prohibiting homosexuality successful the Armed Forces was abhorrent".

The spokesperson added: "We profoundly regret LGBT+ members serving successful defence suffered injustice arsenic a consequence. Our precedence present is to recognize the afloat interaction of the historical prohibition and find due ways to code the wrongs of the past. 

"The argumentation followed astatine the clip was to region references to these erstwhile offences and investigations from work records. There was a ineligible work to guarantee these records were erased from individuals work records."

Fighting with Pride estimates that betwixt 5,000 and 15,000 men and women whitethorn had been affected by the argumentation betwixt 1967 and 2000.

Craig Jones, from the organisation, is present calling for an urgent gathering with the defence secretary.

"You tin ideate what that looks similar to radical who volition person a large woody of trouble trusting the MoD and the government," Mr Jones told the BBC. He said the MoD needs to supply clarity astir what it has done and why.