An ‘old school’ British Army corporal has been jailed after losing his temper and having a knife fight with a junior soldier over his messy room.
Corporal Geraint Evans-Dymond, 35, flipped over a bunk bed which had been bolted to the floor, before telling Fusilier Hezron Harper to ‘sort out your admin’.
The row escalated into a knife fight which saw both servicemen hauled before a court martial.
Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, heard the incident took place late at night on May 28 last year when the two soldiers – both members of the first battalion of the Royal Welsh regiment – were in Germany following a deployment to Estonia.
Prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Felicity Bryson said that there was ‘some very minimal provocation’ of Cpl Evans-Dymond because of ‘failures to maintain the accommodation to the standard directed’.
After flipping the bunk bed, he directed his anger at his 34-year-old junior colleague, grabbing him at chest height and telling him to sort out his ‘f***ing admin’ before pushing him to the wall.
The prosecutor said: ‘Cpl Dymond had flipped Fus Jones’s bunk bed over – this took quite some strength, they were bolted to the floor.’
The fusilier retaliated some time afterwards by stabbing him with a utility tool – similar to a Swiss army knife – and then biting him.
Corporal Geraint Evans-Dymond, 35, flipped over a bunk bed which had been bolted to the floor and threatened his junior colleague with violence
Fus Harper pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and attempted grievous bodily harm after he attacked the corporal in response
Cpl Evans-Dymond pleaded guilty to a disciplinary charge of using threatening behaviour, and Fus Harper pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and attempted grievous bodily harm.
Sentencing the pair, Assistant Judge Advocate General Jane England said: ‘In May of 2024, your unit was in transit accommodation in Germany on return from Estonia.
‘Many of the unit, including Fus Harper, had returned about a week before you, Corporal Evans-Dymond, returned.
‘But when you returned to the room, you were unhappy with the bedspace allocation.
‘You ousted a junior fusilier, who took issue with that. You got angry, flipping the bunk over and shouting.
‘You then targeted your anger at Fus Harper, telling him his admin was poor and then frankly lost your temper, threatening him with violence, pushing him to the wall and shouting in his face.’
This was the ‘catalyst’ for Fus Harper’s retaliation, the court heard.
The judge continued: ‘You’re described as having an old-school style of leadership – not to everyone’s taste, direct and forceful.
The corporal was described in court as having an ‘old-school style of leadership – not to everyone’s taste, direct and forceful’
‘There’s not always time for a please or a thank you, and sometimes directness is a way to get things done, particularly if soldiers are being lazy or lacking discipline.
‘But flipping beds and attacking soldiers should be a thing of the distant past.’
The judge added: ‘Behaviour such as flipping beds and pushing soldiers up against the wall has no place in the modern army.’
Addressing Fus Harper, Judge England said: ‘You ran around to the entrance of the building, intent on confronting Cpl Evans-Dymond and having opened the blade of your garber you ran at Cpl Evans-Dymond trying to stab him.’
Fus Harper later told his troop commander that it was ‘his natural reaction to fight back’.
He was pulled away from Cpl Evans-Dymond by two sergeants.
The judge noted that Cpl Evans-Dymond, who has served in the army for 15 years, faced a court martial in 2020 for grievous bodily harm against a colleague in an accommodation-type environment.
He was sentenced to a period of detention for this – she said that he should have learnt from this that ‘violence is not the answer to a frustrating situation’.
Defending Corporal Evans-Dymond, Libby Anderson said he was ‘sleep deprived’ following a ‘long train journey’.
She said his wife had also recently suffered a miscarriage.
‘The army has changed, and it has perhaps taken Corporal Dymond some time after promotion to realise that,’ she said.
‘He cannot compose himself now as a corporal perhaps as corporals did when he was a private soldier – but he does now recognise that.’
Ms Anderson added that at the time of his previous offence, Corporal Evans-Dymond’s father had recently passed away.
He is currently on crutches because he is recovering from surgery on his ankle for an unrelated injury.
Defending Fus Harper, Fiona Edington said that he is from Grenada, and he hasn’t been able to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK because of the pending outcome of the proceedings.
She said he experienced a ‘red mist’, and his actions were ‘spontaneous and stupid’.
‘He regrets that he even reacted to [Corporal Evans-Dymond’s] bullying behaviour,’ she said.
‘In my submission, he was being bullied by someone who should’ve known better.’
Cpl Evans-Dymond was demoted by one rank and sentenced to four months’ service detention.
Fus Harper was dismissed from the army and was sentenced to 26 months’ imprisonment for the grievous bodily harm and 20 weeks for the assault, to be served concurrently.
