Mock executions, water torture and rape: ADF’s depraved ‘resistance to interrogation’ training exposed

Warning: Distressing content

Australian soldiers were brutally tortured, sexually assaulted and psychologically injured by their own colleagues during top-secret training exercises that the Commonwealth Ombudsman has declared involved “the most serious forms of abuse”.

Resistance to Interrogation training was supposed to prepare Australia’s Special Forces for the possibility of capture during combat. But allegations suggest it enabled a culture of systemic abuse that inflicted untold trauma and destroyed lives.

RTI training – also known as Conduct After Capture – is delivered by the ADF’s Intelligence Corps, which sits outside Special Operations Command.

For the first time, the scale of its alleged depravity is coming to light as victims speak out about the “sadistic” abuse – including rape, water torture and mock executions – they suffered at the hands of interrogators.

It comes as the Commonwealth Ombudsman this week confirmed it received 65 complaints of abuse alleged to have occurred in the context of formal or simulated RTI training under the Defence Abuse Reparation Scheme.

Following a three-year investigation, the Federal watchdog – acting as the Defence Force Ombudsman – concluded that in 57 of those claims, the treatment inflicted on members of the Special Air Service Regiment met the highest threshold of abuse under Federal regulations, resulting in a payout to victims of $2.9 million.

The Ombudsman found the training – which personnel believed was compulsory – included indecent conduct and severe psychological harm.

Accounts provided to the Ombudsman – and seen by The Nightly – include allegations of prolonged sleep deprivation, forced stress positions, hooding, sensory deprivation, mock executions, water torture, sexual humiliation, sexual abuse and, in some cases, rape.

Participants say interrogators also improperly accessed and used soldiers’ personal items, such as photographs of their family, in obscene ways to torture them.

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The Ombudsman told The Nightly the complaints received related to incidents that occurred between 1976 and 2012.

“There were both similarities and variations in what was reported by the complainants,” the Ombudsman said.

“Participant accounts are a significant part of the (investigation) process.

“We seek records and information from Defence to help us to consider the account provided by the participant and consider whether it was reasonably likely to have occurred.”

In 57 cases, the Ombudsman was satisfied the abuse likely did occur, involved the “most serious forms of abuse” and that Defence “did not respond appropriately”.

In those cases, the Ombudsman recommended the maximum reparation payment of $50,000.

In a further two cases, the Ombudsman found abuse likely occurred involving unlawful interference and indecency, and that Defence did not respond appropriately. In those two cases, $25,000 reparation payments were recommended.

In two additional cases, abuse was considered likely but did not meet the threshold for compensation.

Defence could have fought the watchdog’s determinations but has accepted them.

Lawyer Adair Donaldson, who represents 48 of those who lodged reports under the reparation scheme, said the Ombudsman’s findings confirmed long-held concerns.

“While those determinations do not create a legal precedent for others, they are significant,” he said.

“They represent independent confirmation that the conduct occurred and that it was mishandled institutionally by the ADF.

“For many individuals who had previously been told that the training was entirely lawful and conducted appropriately, those findings have provided reassurance that their experiences were real and that they were not alone.”

Meanwhile, more than 200 current and former ADF personnel – many of them from the SAS – are preparing a class action alleging systemic abuse during RTI and CAC training dating back to the 1980s.

Defence has historically maintained that RTI and CAC training was limited to personnel assessed as being at high risk of capture, such as Special Forces soldiers.

While most of the victims who have come forward are from the SAS, statements from current and former personnel reveal the training was applied far more broadly across the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Any litigation could involve thousands of personnel and become one of the most significant institutional abuse cases in Australia’s military history.

Mr Donaldson is acting for at least 213 former and current serving ADF members who allege they were abused during the training.

“Their claims are based on allegations of assault, sexual assault, false imprisonment and the misuse of authority,” he said.

“The group of individuals I represent are experienced members of the ADF drawn from multiple services and units. Many are elite operators or personnel in specialist roles.

“On average they have served approximately 15 years … with a number holding senior ranks or receiving decorations for operational service.”

Mr Donaldson has been investigating these claims for more than a decade.

“One of the most striking features of the evidence is the consistency of the accounts,” he said.

“Individuals who undertook the training in different decades, at different locations and while serving in different units describe remarkably similar experiences.

“The techniques reported … and the nature of the treatment they received are highly consistent across those statements.”

The Nightly has also spoken to numerous victims.

A former member of Perth’s SAS regiment revealed he was digitally raped during RTI training at the end of his special forces selection course in the 1990s.

Another operator said interrogators took a photograph of his infant daughter from personal items in his admin bag – which he had been explicitly told was off limits – and used it in a sexually degrading manner during the interrogation.

In a separate incident, a trooper was confined to a shipping container and subjected to the sound of a baby crying just months after his own infant had died.

An almost completely naked female medic was forced to climb backwards into a small dog cage before being subjected to water torture.

There are accounts of participants being subjected to water torture so terrifying they feared they would drown, while others experienced hallucinations after days without food or sleep.

Many allegations involve trainees being forced to strip naked before their bodies and genitals were ridiculed by female ADF personnel involved in the exercise.

Participants describe prolonged sleep deprivation — often up to 96 hours — alongside sensory disorientation, forced nudity, stress positions, sexual humiliation and psychological manipulation.

Mr Donaldson said the accounts reveal consistent patterns across decades, locations and units.

“Numerous statements describe situations where members of the Intelligence Corps treated the exercise as a challenge to see whether they could break participants, sometimes resorting to the most sadistic forms of psychological and physical abuse,” he said.

“In some cases the conduct escalated into sexual assault or digital or implement rape.”

Mr Donaldson says the training went far beyond what was required to prepare soldiers for the unlikely prospect of capture and, in many cases, may constitute criminal conduct.

Victims have told The Nightly they were simply “guinea pigs” for the Intelligence Corps to practise their interrogation skills.

The Defence Force School of Intelligence is the only ADF unit authorised to deliver Conduct After Capture training. However personnel from other units were at times involved in the training exercises, typically acting as guards, escorts or role players during the detention and interrogation phases.

Most RTI and CAC courses were run at locations in Western Australia and Queensland, though similar training also took place at sites in New South Wales and the ACT.

In the early 2000s, a purpose-built facility – specifically designed for interrogation simulation exercises – was constructed at Canungra in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Satellite imagery of the facility shows a small cluster of low buildings set deep within dense bushland, isolated from surrounding infrastructure and accessible only by narrow access tracks.

Some victims said they were subjected to RTI at the end of their gruelling SAS selection course or during their reinforcement cycle while others – including women – say they were directed to undertake the training prior to deployment.

Many say they believed participation in the course, which could last up to four days, was necessary for deployment and career progression.

Another disturbing aspect is that Defence has previously acknowledged it holds thousands of hours of CCTV footage documenting the training activities.

Mr Donaldson said many of his clients were unaware, at the time, that they were being filmed.

“The existence of such footage is deeply distressing for many participants,” he said.

“The idea that recordings of those moments may still exist within Defence archives, potentially accessible to others for training purposes, has caused considerable anxiety among those involved.”

Mr Donaldson – who has decades of experience working with survivors of institutional abuse – has been trying, since 2022, to privately resolve his clients’ claims with Defence.

His clients are seeking acknowledgement of their abuse, an apology, assurances that those practices had stopped, to have footage of their abuse destroyed and compensation.

In a 2025 letter to then-Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, seen by The Nightly, he outlined allegations of “systemic torture”.

“The best way for me to describe it would be to compare what our men and women have experienced to the horrific images that came out of Abu Ghraib in 2004,” he wrote.

The lawyer has provided Defence with more than 100 signed statements from victims describing their experiences.

“Participants describe being detained, deprived of sleep for prolonged periods, humiliated, stripped, subjected to sexualised conduct, sexual abuse, racial abuse and other degrading treatment while under the control of their own chain of command,” he said.

“The claim is that this conduct occurred without genuine consent and crossed clear legal and ethical boundaries.

“The conduct described by these individuals represents some of the most disturbing institutional abuse I have encountered.”

In November, Defence indicated it would not enter negotiations on the basis that the claims were statute-barred by limitation periods.

“That position was particularly disappointing given the extensive evidence that had been provided and the relatively modest threshold required for the Commonwealth to engage constructively under its own model litigant obligations,” Mr Donaldson said.

“The Commonwealth has therefore had multiple opportunities to address and resolve this issue.”

Mr Donaldson said his clients have been left with no choice but to pursue the matter in court.

“Now that the matter is moving toward group litigation, the focus will inevitably shift to securing fair compensation for those affected and addressing the ongoing concern many participants have about the existence of footage depicting their treatment during the training,” he said.

“These claims seek acknowledgement of that wrongdoing and recognition of the moral injury caused when those entrusted with authority subjected their own personnel to horrific conduct that should never have been inflicted on them.

“It comes from the knowledge that the humiliation and abuse they endured was inflicted by their own institution and by people in positions of authority whom they were trained to trust.”

Mr Donaldson says there was no “measurable benefit to subjecting our own personnel to torture” and pointed out that no Australian soldiers have been captured in combat since the Korean War.

“To hear of the sadistic torture that our own personnel were exposed to by their own institution is deeply distressing,” he said.

“What these men and women endured was inexcusable.

“Every Australian should be deeply troubled by what has occurred.”

In response to questions from The Nightly, Defence said it “does not tolerate unacceptable behaviour in any form”.

“Defence acknowledges the experiences of those affected by earlier versions of Conduct after Capture training,” a spokesperson said.

“We remain committed to continually reviewing and improving this program to ensure it is delivered safely, appropriately, and in a way that supports the wellbeing of all personnel.

“The training is voluntary and is one of Defence’s most closely governed and supervised activities, designed to prepare personnel to survive capture.

“Any allegations, including those relating to this training are taken seriously and are addressed through established Defence processes.”

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