Debbie Robinson says her daughter was gang-raped by military colleagues and nothing was done to help her.
A mother is speaking out, saying her daughter, an Army National Guard soldier, took her own life after being gang-raped by male colleagues during an overseas deployment.
Debbie Robinson says her daughter, Morgan, never recovered from the trauma and that the military did nothing to help her.
“To think that that’s what took her life — that’s what broke her,” the mother told CBS Evening News.
“They wanted her body. And they took her soul."
Morgan Robinson was sexually attacked and harassed by her supervisors in Kuwait in 2016 the mother said.
But when Morgan reported the incidents, she received no help, the mother told CBS News.
“She got nothing,” Debbie said.
Robinson was later deployed to Afghanistan, where multiple soldiers allegedly raped her, her mother said. The woman was too frightened to report that alleged gang rape, her mother said, and took her own life four months later.
The Army investigated her death, Debbie Robinson said, and gave her a heavily redacted copy of its report.
“Sgt. Robinson suffered sexual, physical, and psychological trauma while deployed. The sequel of this trauma was a factor in her death,” the letter said, according to CBS.
“They can’t police their self. How can you investigate yourself? You can’t,” Debbie said, saying there should be an independent agency for investigating military sexual assaults, a common plea from advocates of sexual harassment and assault survivors.
In a statement to CBS, the Army said a full investigation of the sexual assault report was conducted and that “appropriate” action was taken against the supervisor.
“The department remains committed to our goals of ending sexual assault in the military, providing the highest quality response to service members and holding offenders appropriately accountable,” said Army principal policy adviser Elizabeth Van Winkle.
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