RAF serviceman who was tortured and discharged after air force discovered he was gay demands justice and full pension
Simon Hinchley-Robson faced four days of being searched and assaulted by members of the RAF special investigation branch at a base in west Wales in the 1980s after it was discovered he was gay.
The former serviceman now wants the Government to admit that the interrogations were wrong, and to be given his full armed forces pension.
His call for justice is backed by his local MP, Clive Efford (Eltham), who told the Commons that his constituent faced and was discharged from the RAF simply because he was gay.
The Labour MP said Mr Hinchley-Robson, while serving as a chef at an RAF base in west Wales, became ill and was diagnosed as having glandular fever.
He continued to lose weight after the diagnosis by RAF medical staff and he requested a test for Aids, MPs heard.
Mr Hinchley-Robson was transferred to a civilian hospital where he took the test and was discharged after 10 days.
Mr Efford added: “Immediately on his return he was arrested by RAF police, the special investigation branch.
“The request for the test was taken as an admission that Mr Robson was gay.”
MP Clive Efford
Mr Efford went on to read Mr Hinchley-Robson’s description of what happened to him.
The Commons heard: “What happened next was the most horrendous and awful experience no-one should ever have to endure.
“I was led to an interrogation room, this – unknown to me – was going to be my home for the next four days.
“I was denied food, I was denied sleep and only given small amounts of water. I was immediately searched, asked to strip and searched internally. They said this was the procedure.”
MPs heard he refused a request to name any person in any of the services that he had some sort of relationship with.
“On refusing, I was assaulted and again instructed to strip, the medical gloves went on and I was again subject to what I can only say was rape while I was again internally searched,” Mr Hinchley-Robson.
Mr Efford told the Commons that a new search followed a change of shift every four hours.
He said: “What was taking place was a form of torture of Mr Robson for being gay. The question has to be asked – was this sanctioned by the RAF?
“Which seems likely, after all there was a remarkable consistency in the pattern of behaviour between the shifts. How common was it for gay people to be abused in this way?”
Mr Hinchley-Robson was only released after a new doctor at the base intervened.
The MP said his constituent now wanted the Government to admit that the interrogations were wrong, and called for him to be compensated and given his full RAF pension, which had been denied to him at the time.
The MP also called for a public apology for him as well as for others who took their own lives because of abuse they faced.
Treasury Minister Alan Mak described the account of what happened to Mr Hinchley-Robson as “plainly appalling, inexcusable, and wrong” and said it had “unfairly tainted a promising career”.
He said: “The fact that he and others within the LGBT community faced discrimination in the not too distant past remains a cause of shame and huge regret but it is now incumbent on us to use this case as a powerful reminder that such shocking incidents must never happen again in the future.”
He added: “We shouldn’t forget that shocking though Mr Hinchley-Robson’s case is, it is historical.
“The MoD of 2022 is a very different entity to its 1980s incarnation.”
The minister recommended that Mr Hinchley-Robson make a claim on his pension through a Government scheme set up to help LGBT servicemen who had been wrongly dismissed.