A former senior noncommissioned army officer has admitted sexually assaulting the teenage soldier Jaysley Beck, who later killed herself.

WO Michael Webber pleaded guilty to assaulting Gunner Beck during a training exercise and will be sentenced at the military court in Bulford, Wiltshire on 31 October.

Beck, 19, from Cumbria, took her own life in her room at Larkhill Camp, Wiltshire in December 2021 five months after the assault.

At the end of Beck’s inquest in February, the coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said Beck’s complaint about being sexually assaulted during the exercise at Thorney Island in Hampshire should have been reported to police and the failure to do so breached army policy. He said the army’s failure to take appropriate action “more than minimally” contributed to her death.

Leighann McCready, Beck’s mother, said the family was relieved that Webber had admitted his guilt.However, she added: “It’s hard to believe it has taken so long for there to be any accountability for this crime. Jaysley did everything right. She reported the assault immediately, not once but twice.

“First to her captain, who dismissed and dissuaded her from going further. And even then, she went over his head and reported it up the chain. But her chain of command still failed her.

“They did not do what the rules at the time required them to do – which was to report it to the police. If they had done that one simple thing, we believe with all our hearts she would still be with us today.”

McCready said her daughter lost faith that she would be believed or supported the next time she needed help – which she said was just a few weeks later when another senior male started harassing her too. “By this point she felt she had nowhere to turn.”

McCready said even after the coroner’s findings, the family had to push for the assault to be treated as a crime. “The justice system shouldn’t work like this – whether civilian or military. It shouldn’t depend upon a grieving family pressing at every stage for investigations that should have been conducted right at the start when Jaysley first reported what had happened to her.

“Like so many women, Jaysley simply was not believed and everything else flowed from that. Those failures cost her her life. Until the culture changes, service personnel will continue to be failed.”

Emma Norton, the family’s solicitor, said: “What a difference it would have made if Jaysley’s chain of command had just listened when she told them about the assault the morning it happened and reported it to the police – instead of trying to persuade her that it wasn’t that serious, and to think about the impact on her assailant’s career and family.”

The inquest heard Beck had made a complaint against Webber after the exercise in July 2021. She had said that he had “made a pass” at her, put his hand between her legs and “pinned her down” while trying to kiss her, the hearing was told.

Beck, who joined the army at 16, had been left scared by the incident and ended up sleeping in her car for safety.

After the inquest, the army said it should have done “so much more” to support and protect Beck. Webber has left the army.