U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Gillian Eby, a logistics officer, and native of Baltimore, gives U.S. Marines and Finnish soldiers a safety brief before a joint long-range convoy in preparation for Exercise Freezing Winds 24 in Dragsvik, Finland, Nov. 19, 2024. Freezing Winds is an annual Finnish-led maritime exercise involving U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Rotational Force – Europe and serves as a venue to increase Finnish Naval readiness and interoperability between NATO partners and allies in and around the Baltic Sea. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Meshaq Hylton)

A man born in 2006 was convicted of two service offences after inappropriately touching and harassing two female recruits at the Armoured Brigade in Hattula last summer. According to MTV Uutiset, the conduct violated the general service regulation’s ban on sexual and gender-based harassment.

He had touched and slapped female recruits in different parts of their bodies, put his hand on their thighs on the bus, slapped them on the buttocks, groped and slapped them, grabbed their chests under their combat vests during combat first aid training, touched their hands and gestured with kisses. He had also cornered one woman by getting in her way with his body and came to sit on the other’s lap. In addition, he had suggested having sex and praised the woman’s buttocks.

The court found that he had touched, slapped, groped, cornered, and made sexual comments toward the women, with the behaviour stopping after it was reported. He was sentenced to 40 day-fines, which amounted to €240 based on his income.

Read the entire piece in MTV Uutiset.