Soldier sues Australian Defence Force over controversial training course

An Australian soldier claims he was stripped naked, labelled a paedophile and humiliated with a sex toy during an Army training course.

Former soldier Damien De Pyle has described his ordeal during a controversial Defence Force training course. Picture: Julian Andrews

Army “resistance trainers” donated to a “little box of horrors” used to humiliate soldiers during “conduct after capture” courses, including sex toys, the Bible and Koran, dog collars and bowls, women's underwear and homosexual porn.

The “prop box” items were not bought with Australian Defence Force (ADF) funds, but purchased by the trainers and can only be exposed after a Sunday Telegraph freedom of information request.

The army considers the inner workings of its post-capture resistance courses to be a closely guarded secret.

But the information revealed under FOI laws, and a court case launched by a former soldier, has exposed how thousands of ADF personnel were subjected to the bizarre and horrific training regime.

In documents filed in the Federal Court, former soldier Damien de Pyle, a Catholic, claims his “resistance training” interrogators unlawfully discriminated against him by saying “You’re a Catholic, you must enjoy sexually molesting kids” as he stood naked with a sex toy forcibly placed between his legs.

During the ordeal, an interrogator also allegedly said to a sleep-deprived Mr De Pyle: “You people are a bunch of paedophiles”.

“He (Cardinal George Pell) is a paedophile. How can you support paedophiles?”

Former soldier Damien De Pyle. Picture: Julian Andrews

The scene took place during “conduct after capture” training at the Kokoda Barracks outside Canungra, Queensland, designed to prepare soldiers to endure hostile interrogations, with trainers role-playing as terrorists.

Mr De Pyle, who lives in Sydney, claims he also had a gun waved at his face, was scowled at by a pack of aggressive military dogs, and was forced to desecrate the Bible.

He was medically discharged just over a year after he finished the course, after his mental health spiralled.

The information obtained under FOI laws reveals none of the objects used to belittle and humiliate soldiers have been purchased through normal procurement processes.

“These props have all been donated by resistance trainers over time,” a defence official, Colonel Nicholas Wilson said in a statement.

“The use of these props is pre-planned by the resistance trainer and briefed to the shift senior trainer who then authorises their use.”

A defence source described the “prop box” as “defence’s little box of horrors” containing sex toys, the Bible and Koran, dog collars and bowls, women's underwear and homosexual porn.

The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide heard at least 45 soldiers who underwent the training have suicided.