Defence force Wikipedia clean-up operation to rid internet of army scandals

A Defence employee is allegedly behind attempts to hide references to abuse and bullying allegations at a Sydney army barracks.

Defence cyber geeks are ­engaged in a Wikipedia clean-up operation in a bid to wipe any reference on the internet to a growing scandal at a Sydney army barracks.

A Defence employee has been caught out as being behind attempts to hide references to abuse and bullying allegations at Holsworthy Barracks.

And it has been claimed the attempted cover-up has links to senior soldiers.

The Sydney University Regiment at Holsworthy is at the centre of the allegations, now with the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force, in which cadets claim they needed mental health support after being subjected to abuse.

The front gate of Holsworthy Army Barracks.

Last month, when the unit’s Wikipedia page was updated with the allegations, a Defence staffer attempted to have the mentions of the investigation removed from the record and covered up.

They then went so far as to claim the person who made the entry about the abuse allegations was a soldier “under investi­gation for sexual inappropriate behaviour”, in what some personnel who blew the whistle about the abuse ­described as ­“retribution”.

But the attempt to remove the Wikipedia references was exposed because the culprit forgot their IP address would be publicly listed, and it links back to a Defence server in Sydney.

“(Leadership) has us trying to smear the trainees with counter accusations in an ­attempt to make them look bad,” one senior officer said.

“It’s just wrong.”

The Sydney Regiment abuse claims are understood to be among the army’s top three “PR concerns” and Defence sources have described the scandal as worse than the infamous scandal in which a cadet soldier secretly filmed himself having sex with a female cadet and broadcast the vision via Skype to several of their colleagues in 2011.

Soldiers at the centre of the Holsworthy claims are also understood to be “coaching” colleagues to stick to a story that would clear them of ­punishment.

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