The army apologies for not preventing the suicide of a cadet | 5 News

Well, actually, this is due to a complete lack of training and awareness. Olivia Perks was on a risk register because she had previously attempted to take her own life in 2018 and there had also been several incidents of stress over the years or more. her time in Santurst, but Coronet told us that this was not a priority for the chain of command, so when she finally died in 2019 she suffered what was described as a complete interruption of social support. Now there are a series of incidents. We heard about one in particular in the days before she died, she went to a pool, uh, at Santa's, she got drunk and ended up in a black sergeant's room.

Now, this is someone who is at a higher level and now completely breaks the rules. The coroner said that if this had been treated as a medical situation rather than a disciplinary one, measures could have been put in place that would have saved his life. As we have heard from Olivia's family outside court this afternoon, the last four years have been the hardest and most difficult journey we could have undertaken to lose our wonderful, lively, captivating girl in circumstances that we now know were avoidable. . We have been fighting for the truth of what really happened since she passed away and the story she presented to us.

The Ministry of Defense was very different to the conclusion now reached by the coroner: we were told that Olivia wrote letters to her family and the

army

before she died in which she said that the loss of her career and false rumors were the reasons . that she had committed

suicide

and the coroner said it was reasonable to think that she was referring to the consequences of that dance in the days before her death. Here's what the military had to say outside court today. Individual failures within the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. leading to the tragic death of Olivia Perks in February 2019.

Much more should and could have been done to support her as an organization. We should have been better. The Army's own investigation into the death found 61 recommendations that could be made at Sandhurst, many of which have been implemented over the past four years. Olivia's family was grateful that they hope to see a change in the culture in Olivia's name so that any candidate who comes through in the future can be the best she can be. be