Royal Navy training HQ on 'lockdown' over 'revenge porn': Recruits are told to 'hand in their phones' as top brass tries to stop 'sex tape going viral'

Daily Mail​

16-05-2025

A Royal Navy training base was 'locked down' following alleged claims of revenge porn, with young recruits ordered to 'hand in their phones' during an urgent investigation.
The digital blackout, known as 'River City state', was instated at HMS Raleigh, Torpoint, Cornwall, in a bid to stop a 'sex tape from going viral'.
Hundreds of novices, some as young as 16 or 17, were told to cease all online communication after intimate photographs were shared throughout the training HQ of a young female recruit by her partner, a pervious rookie who had joined in a separate intake, without her consent.
A Navy source allegedly told The Sun: 'By that point her former partner had already left the Navy. He never completed training.
'Only one person is under investigation. No other recruits are suspected of wrongdoing.'
With potential for the blackout to last up to 96 hours, an alleged message sent to parents informing them of the ongoing situation, read: 'Welfare calls are being made to under-18s' parents to say that their recruits are OK but the base is on communication blackout due to an ongoing police investigation.'
A Royal Navy spokesperson said: 'We expect the highest standards from our people and have a zero-tolerance approach to criminal and inappropriate behaviour.
'The welfare of our recruits is our number one priority and a restriction on the use of mobile phones was in place for a short time.
'A civilian police investigation is ongoing, and it would be inappropriate to comment further on the matter.'
The shutdown is not the first X-rated scandal to have hit the prestigious service, with two previous Royal Navy sailors sacked from their reputable positions after taking raunchy photographs while at work.
Naval Airman Zac Blackman was axed from his role in July 2023 after making up to £20,000 a month in cash by selling Onlyfans porn content taken onboard Britain's massive HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier.
But, far from being remorseful, the now disgraced naval claimed that he had been made a millionaire thanks to his sex pics, insisting that being fired was actually the 'best thing' for him.
The then 21-year-old even refused to take down the photos because it was earning him 'so much money', insisting that he was always careful to hide 'where the ship was or what manoeuvres we were on'.
Blackman, from Manchester, told The Sun: 'It was really hard work for the money I was getting. I decided to post videos and images of me in my uniform.
'They started to take off, and after a few weeks I was earning £20,000 a month from that.'
Meanwhile, Royal Navy lieutenant Claire Jenkins, who used the pseudonym Celly Taylor, was also found to have been making several X-rated films inside of the Faslane nuclear submarine HQ, HMNB Clyde, near Glasgow, in 2021.
An investigation by furious Navy bosses was launched over the scandalous 'porn to order' videos, made with her lover at the time, Leading Seaman Liam Doddington, also based at HMNB Clyde, which Lt Jenkns then sold on Only Fans.
Warfare officer Lt Jenkins had commanded a team of sailors on the HMS Artful and was responsible for the £1billion vessel's hi-tech outer casing of sound-damping tiles.
The innovative tiles subsequently allowed the vessel to glide through the ocean stalking Russian subs.
Continuing to post explicit videos and images following the investigation, which went on to gain more than 10,000 likes, her Only Fans profile read: 'I'm 29 and working that 9 to 5 life, I love to be naughty and stay colourful.
'My naughty side can sometimes get me into trouble, but that feeling of excitement we can get from doing this just makes me so hot and bothered.'