Marine trainers not 'expected' to yell at recruits

Royal Marine instructors are not "expected" to shout and swear at trainees, a senior officer has told an inquest into the death of a teenage recruit.

Connor Clark, 18, from Norwich, was found dead on rail tracks near the Commando Training Centre in Lympstone, Devon, on 12 June 2021.

At the inquest in Exeter, coroner Philip Spinney has heard that the teenager received more "thrashings" - a physical punishment from instructors - than others because he made more mistakes.

Recruits described the instructors being "in their face" shouting and swearing at them.

The coroner questioned training centre commandant Col Innes Catton about "that method of training".

He told Col Catton: "It is not lost on me that the Royal Marines are some of the most elite troops in the world, but I would like to get a sense for the reason for that method of training and that approach to training."

Col Catton replied: "Those methods are not the methods we would choose to use to train some of the best infantry in Nato.

"As I understand it, inappropriate language has been one of the key themes that has come out.

"There is no requirement for that.

"It is certainly not expected, and we don't want that."

The inquest heard recruits were shouted at with instructors using various swear words.

Recruit Clark, who went to Thorpe St Andrew School near Norwich, was three weeks into a four-week recruit orientation phase course - a course Marine recruits undertake before beginning initial training.

Days before his death, he had misplaced a blank firing adapter for his rifle and had made comments about being a "failure" and the "worst recruit", the inquest has previously heard.

Col Catton said Royal Marine training had undergone a "fundamental shift" in the last two decades.

"We want people to join, and we need these bright young people, and we are very fortunate to attract some of the very best of society," he said.

"There is a responsibility there to give them the very best instruction.

"If I was to think more broadly about what we do at the Commando Training Centre with that initial entry, what we are really doing is helping them realise their potential.

"Some of that training is very hard and some of the psychology around it is very hard and very uncomfortable."

The inquest was adjourned until next week.