It was January 1994, 15 years into his Naval career, when Lt Cdr Lustig-Prean was blackmailed by a man he didn’t know, but who had somehow found out he was gay.
He told the man to “eff off”, and that he was going to go to the military police himself to report the conversation.
“I made an appointment first thing on Monday morning with the head of the Special Investigation Branch,” Lt Cdr Lustig-Prean says. The Special Investigation Branch (SIB) was made up of the military police forces from the Army, the Navy and the RAF. “He had been my subordinate in my previous job and I knew him well.”
The SIB head gave him a warm, friendly reception, ushering him into a room where there was fresh coffee and a plate of chocolate biscuits laid out on the table.
When Lt Cdr Lustig-Prean confided that he was being blackmailed, the SIB head was outraged on his behalf: “Give me the so-and-so’s name and I’ll sort it out for you. Why is he trying to blackmail you?”
Lt Cdr Lustig-Prean told him the truth – that it was because he was gay.
“At this point, you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife,” he says.
The SIB head moved the coffee and biscuits to one side, and told him matter-of-factly that he was not obliged to say anything, but anything he did say could be taken down and given in evidence.
“He pushed me towards a police interview room, with somebody else in the room as well, to interrogate me about my private and sexual life,” Lt Cdr Lustig-Prean says.
“It was the sort of interrogation I would expect if I were accused of rape. They were asking probing questions about my private and sexual life in the most gross detail you can imagine.”
He was suspended, and later discharged.
