A Colchester soldier has revealed how his colleagues have been hurt by stories in national newspapers about his relationship with a married woman.

Capt Bob Parry, 42, said troops in 16 Air Assault Brigade were upset that a story was leaked to the press rather than allowing the matter to be dealt with in-house.

Several national papers carried stories last week about how Capt Parry was sent home from the Gulf after he admitted a relationship with the wife of a private in the same unit as him.

He said any personal issues were normally dealt with by the regiment so troops had been upset that someone had leaked the story to the national papers.

"There is a lot of hostility that I have picked up from someone talking about this in the press," he said. "This has hurt the lads badly.

"The only person other than me that I would not want to be is the person who leaked this to the press."

He said the reaction towards himself had changed as the story had come out, though.

At first, people thought he had had an affair with the woman and that her husband had been in the same regiment as him when they met.

That would have been considered as an unforgivable breach of trust in the close-knit unit.

"If people genuinely thought I had had an affair with a soldier's wife, everybody would be hostile," he said.

But he denied he had done anything other than meet the woman for a drink and it was before her husband had joined 3 Para.

He also said he believed the woman and her husband were separated when he met her.

Once those facts had been revealed, he said reactions had been less hostile.

Capt Parry said he met the woman for the first time in a bar and they only met once afterwards for a drink, but he denied any other meetings had taken place.

When the woman's husband was transferred to 3 Para, Capt Parry felt he had to tell his commanding officer and that was when he was sent home from the Gulf.

He is currently on post-operational leave, but is due to be sent to a new posting at the infantry training centre at Catterick so he wouldn't have to work with the woman's husband.

"I'm due to be transferred up north," he said. "That is the way it has to be because now we should not be in the same unit."

He added he had been given a lot of support from his wife, family and friends and hoped the matter could now be closed.

Published Tuesday, June 10, 2003

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