Cadet leader denies new instructor was abusive

THE leader of a Sutherland Army Cadet detachment told a court she had never heard a probationary instructor say anything "untoward" to cadets.

Lieutenant Doreen Bentham (61), who commands the Brora unit, was giving evidence in the trial at Dornoch Sheriff Court on Tuesday of Michael Buttery (43), The Shieling, Kinbrace.

Buttery denies a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and making inappropriate comments at Brora Cadet Hut between February 1 and June 25 last year.

He also denies a further charge of breaching the peace by making a racially aggravated comment between the same dates at the hut.

Lieutenant Bentham, who runs the Garvault Hotel in Kinbrace, said she had first met Buttery when he visited the hotel.

They fell into conversation and Buttery, a former Coldstream Guard, later suggested he could help out with the Brora cadets.

He was taken on as a PI (potential instructor), underwent disclosure and was waiting for relevant paperwork to come through before officially becoming an instructor.

He was at the cadet hut on eight occasions in total but was asked to leave the premises on July 4 pending an investigation into the allegations.

Lieutenant Bentham denied that Buttery, who taught drill, had been left alone with cadets against proper procedure.

"He would never have been out of sight or earshot – that is normal," she said.

When asked by procurator fiscal Roderick Urquhart if her evidence was coloured by what should have happened rather than what did happen, she replied "No". Lieutenant Bentham went on to tell the court: "I personally have not seen anything that would have worried me. That is all I can say." But she added she had been asked by a senior cadet officer, who had overheard Buttery during a cadet weekend, to tell him to "tone down" his language.

"We have a lot of very good instructors who come from an army background, all of whom have to learn to adjust because teaching young soldiers and teaching young people is slightly different," she said.

"The knowledge base is good but the actual method of teaching young people rather than soldiers is something they have to acquire."

She agreed that before Buttery joined the detachment there had been a lot of "skylarking" but said she had never lost control of the unit. Discipline and standards of dress had improved following his arrival.

"Having me shout at them and a man shout at them are two different things," she said.

She named three cadets in particular who did not like "being told what to do", and said they had probably not been as happy at Buttery’s arrival as others.

Two of the cadets named, Damien Roberts (18) and Benjamin Macrae (16), previously gave evidence against Buttery.

The two confirmed they had made the allegations about Buttery to a senior officer from outside the detachment. Evidence was also heard on Tuesday from two cadets, who cannot be named because of their age and who gave evidence behind screens.

Asked whether they had been at all concerned about anything Buttery had said to them, they both replied "No".

One said that after Buttery’s arrival the cadets "started to be more obedient to the instructions given. They took things more seriously".

The unit’s most senior cadet, Sergeant James Allan (17), who was responsible for instructing junior cadets, also gave evidence.

He said he had never heard Buttery say anything inappropriate.

Sgt Allan said cadets were in the habit of playing up at meetings, particularly Damien Roberts and Benjamin Macrae.

"I had to speak to them about their behaviour but they just shrugged it off," he said.

"They made life more difficult for me and it sometimes put me off attending cadets. I considered giving up because of the ill discipline."

Sgt Allan revealed that behaviour had improved "quite dramatically" after Buttery joined the unit.

"Mr Buttery spoke to them on the odd occasion. They were not happy about it," he said.

He confirmed that if any cadet had a complaint, the correct procedure was to speak in the first instance to himself as senior cadet and then to other instructors at the detachment.

He did not know why the two cadets who complained about Buttery had "skipped" this chain of command and instead gone directly to a senior officer outside the detachment. He said it was well known that the officer in question was also a serving police officer.

The trial was adjourned until 15th April.