LONDON -- Six members of Britain's crack Parachute Regiment were sentenced to jail for the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl at an Army base and officials ordered security checks to verify allegations women regularly were taken into barracks, newspapers reported Tuesday.
Procedings against the men were delayed because three of the defendants were sent to the Falkland Islands during last year's 74-day war with Argentina.
The uniformed paratroopers were sentenced Monday after testimony that the struggling, screaming victim was tied to a bed for 30 minutes in November 1981, raped, kicked, hit in the face and urinated on.
The judge called the case 'disgusting' and sentenced two paratroopers for rape and four others for indecent assault in the attack at the Aldershot base some 35 miles southwest of London.
The men convicted of rape were sentenced to three and five years respectively and those convicted of indecent assault drew sentences ranging from four to 12 months.
Gen. Sir Frank Kitson, commander-in-chief of British land forces ordered a security check on all Army establishments after it was testified women were regularly brought into barracks.
'We are not allowed to do it but it happens every night,' one paratrooper told the court.
A private said his barracks was 'packed with women' every night.
'I take a different girl back every time,' he told the court. 'It's against orders but no one takes any notice.'
The Ministry of Defense said it was taking the allegations 'very seriously.'
'The Parachute Regiment, in particular, is bound to be a target for subversive activity and those who allow their own security arrangements to be breached are not doing their colleagues any favors,' a senior ministry spokesman said.
