I WAS TORTURED BY ARMY BULLIES

A FORMER Buckingham Palace guard who claims he was beaten 400 times by Army bullies for befriending a black soldier is to sue the Ministry of Defence for pounds 200,000.

Steven Nixon says brutal attacks by racist soldiers wearing Ku Klux Klan-style masks left him suffering post-traumatic stress which wrecked his life.

He claims he was a 17-year-old recruit when soldiers wearing pillow case hoods to hide their faces beat him with a metal bed rail, force-fed him mothballs, rubbed scouring powder in his eyes, punched, kicked and urinated on him.

The former Coldstream Guardsman, now 33, who carried out sentry duty at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, says the violent abuse led to three suicide attempts and the break-up of his marriage. Even when he quit the Army, he continued to receive death threats.

He believes that he was singled out for bullying because one of his Army friends was a black recruit.

He has since changed his name five times and moved house 30 times, fearing his tormentors may still pursue him.

Now Steven plans to sue MoD chiefs in a landmark case to expose the Army's "barbaric" initiation rituals.

He said: "I was assaulted over 400 times in 11 months. It destroyed my life and I am still haunted by the memories today.

"These initiation ceremonies are endemic in the Army. My whole motivation in speaking out now is to attempt to end them and save other young soldiers going through the same hell that I went through."

Steven, who changed his name from Simon Booth and is now living in South Wales, told how his bullying nightmare began when he joined the elite Coldstream Guards in 1986.

The beatings were triggered when a fellow squaddie found a photo of him posing with a black friend from the Paras. The soldier wrongly believed Steven had been photographed with Britain's first black Guardsman Richard Stokes - who left the Army in 1990 after complaining of racism - and branded him a "f***ing nigger-lover."

Steven said: "Racism was inherent in the Guards. I can remember when my whole company was ordered to spit in Stokes' direction. I refused. I've got Afro-Caribbean relatives in my family and I can't stand racists in any shape or form."

The assaults began soon after Steven was posted to London's Wellington Barracks, after nine months training.

He said: "I was dragged into a room by my hair and then punched in the face. I looked up to see myself surrounded by eight men. One of them started to kick me and the rest followed. I was dragged to my feet by my hair and thrown into a bath of cold water and urine." Steven claimed his attackers used a stiff brush to scour his body with silver polish before he was punched, kicked and urinated on.

Later that night, he was in bed when his drunken tormentors returned. He said: "The door flew open. The metal bar on the end of my bed was ripped off and they beat me with it. I curled up in a ball, screaming with fear and pain.

"I was 17 and I was told the initiation ceremonies were the same for all the 'sprogs'. I was told if you kept your mouth shut for six months, you would be accepted into the regiment.

"I did that. But when I was told to beat up another 16-year-old recruit, I refused and I was given one of the worst beatings I ever had in the Guards."

Steven claimed senior officers ignored his black eyes and bruises. On one occasion, he was left on sentry duty at Windsor Castle in freezing conditions for nine hours - and only saved from hypothermia when Prince Andrew noticed his distress. Steven refused to "shop" his attackers. But military police launched an investigation in 1987 after his mother complained. Two Guardsmen later appeared before a court martial accused of common assault and were sentenced to 60 days detention.

Steven, who has a 13-month-old son Ieuan with his new partner Julie, said: "I joined the Army to protect my country . I never dreamt racism would cost me that career."

After quitting the Guards, Steven spent 10 years in the Royal Navy before leaving in 1998. His solicitor Mark McGhee said the claim for damages was being made now because he had only been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress within the last year.

Last night an Army spokeswoman said: "Bullying is not allowed in the British Army and if someone is found guilty of such an offence they are punished accordingly."

The Army believes it is now winning the war against racism. Black and Asian recruitment has risen from just 0.7 per cent in 1997 to 5.6 per cent now.

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