Dance-provocateur Chubby Checker might’ve never sang the lyrics to his 1960 hit, “The Twist,” if he knew, nearly 60 years later, a maniacal British soldier would punitively apply the words to the weary nipples of chest-clenching subordinates.
British Army Lance Sergeant Liam Cruise-Taylor has been jailed for a six-month period after admitting to a series of allegations of punching, elbowing, and twisting the nipples of the soldiers under his charge, according to the Shropshire Star.
Abuse by the 32-year-old reportedly occurred during parts of 2016 and 2017, when he was responsible for training new members of the Irish Guards Recruits, whose mission it is to protect the royal family.
Once they arrived for training at Catterick Infantry Centre in North Yorkshire, England, his men found protecting themselves from their superior’s pattern of abusive behavior was difficult enough.
A total of seven victims accused Cruise-Taylor of ill treatment “in the form of physical violence used against them throughout their training,” the judge said at the sentencing.
And nipple-related punishments were just the tip of the maltreatment iceberg.
On one occasion, Cruise-Taylor reportedly delivered multiple punches to the ribs of a recruit. On another, he collapsed a recruit with an elbow strike to the sternum and stood over the distressed man, screaming, “Stand up and take it like a man.”
During roll call, Cruise-Taylor slapped one trainee across the face, the report said.
No reason was given for the violence, but when you’re Lance Sergeant Liam Cruise-Taylor, you don’t need a reason to be a punk ass.
Another recruit, meanwhile, committed the capital offense of mispronouncing Cruise-Taylor’s unnecessarily hyphenated name. The overcompensating-for-something sergeant responded by punching him squarely “in the belly,” the report says.
“This was a bad case of bullying,” the judge said.
Despite opposition by his lawyers, the abusive soldier was busted down to the rank of lance corporal and subsequently locked up.
The lawyers doth protest too much, methinks.
“No lance sergeant can possibly behave in the way he behaved — taking advantage of his rank and status with regard to raw recruits," the judge said in the report.
"Given the circumstances, reduction in rank was almost inevitable.”
As for recruit retribution, the courts reportedly refused to invoke the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi and the ancient rite of nipple-for-a-nipple retaliation.
Jon Simkins is the executive editor for Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
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soldier abuserecruit abuseabuse in the militarymilitary abuse recruitsbritish soldier jailedbritish soldier abusing recruitsnipple twist sergeantarmy abusephysical abuse in the military
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