Filled with horror stories of perversion dangerous cliques and lesbian rape Caroline had to accept that lesbian investigations would just be part
Posted by adminFilled with horror stories of perversion, dangerous cliques and lesbian rape, Caroline had to accept that lesbian investigations would just be part of her routine detective work with the SIB.Investigations were triggered by gossip, tip-offs and undercover surveillance. Caroline regularly spent time with a male colleague watching and visiting army pubs, and following groups of suspected lesbians. It was well known that gay women would make sure they had "smoke-screen" boyfriends and Caroline would find herself dispatched to chat them up.She was also shocked to discover the existence of the Lesbian Index, a complex cross-referencing system, later transferred to computer, based largely on unsubstantiated accusations. She was urged to make regular contributions, however tenuous, on the basis that if a name came up enough times, that in itself was grounds for an investigation. When she remarked to her boss that these methods seemed disproportionately extreme, he talked of senior ranks "taking advantage" and asked her how she would like it, "if one of them came on to you?" Caroline artlessly replied that in her experience it happened all the time with men.Real disquiet set in one winter's night when she found herself in a squad storming a women's accommodation block, turning out lockers and confiscating sacks of letters and address books.
Caroline remembers how she still naively believed the SIB's extreme propaganda. "I expected to discover cliques of lesbians with torture instruments. But all we found were terrified women shaken from sleep to find us trashing their bed spaces." One traumatised private dared to scream "SIB, shit in bulk" to her face. Caroline had no reply and, depressed and demoralised, she returned to sift through mountains of confiscated material.Her confusion deepened as a gentle friendship with a woman military police staff sergeant became more and more important and turned into love and her first real lesbian relationship.
As her training in the interrogation of lesbian suspects continued, her agony increased. While Caroline struggled with the realisation that she might herself be gay she was being trained to pressurise lesbians into confessions which would lead to courts martial Interrogations were routinely brutal. Even when a confession had been obtained, the woman was then pushed to give graphic detail of her every sexual act. When Caroline dared to question this she was assured that many women pretended to be lesbians as an excuse to get out of the Army.