‘Bounty put on women sailors’ on board HMAS Success

MELBOURNE - It has emerged that along with the predatory behaviour, intimidation, bullying and abuse of female sailors on board the HMAS Success, bounties were also placed on their heads.

An independent inquiry was previously told by Commanding Officer Simon Brown that female officers had “bounties” placed on their heads by males competing to have sex with them.

Brown said that he became aware of a catalogue of kinky misdemeanours among sailors during his time in charge of the supply vessel HMAS Success in 2009.

The inquiry was told that the abuse went unrecorded for some time because of problems with the Navy’s reporting system.f the 220 people on board the ship, only 30 were women, meaning that for many of them the divisional reporting system involved only men.

Cmdr Brown agreed that this could make it very difficult for junior females to report inappropriate behaviour towards them.

“At the end of the day I rely very heavily on that system,” News.com.au quoted him as telling a hearing in Sydney on March 24.

Following a series of other allegations, including reports of sex on the ship’s mess desk and public sex in a Chinese bar by two HMAS Success sailors on Anzac Day shore leave, Cmdr Brown said several female crew members asked for a meeting.

They made it clear that a predatory culture fuelled by drink existed on the ship, particularly in the engineering department.

The allegations came to light on a tour of duty during which HMAS Success called at Darwin, Manila, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and waters east of Malaysia between late March 2009 and early June of that year. (ANI)