Last spring, Gillian Foy was crushed to learn that her husband, Sgt. Sanz Foy, was having an affair and had fathered a child in the relationship. After she told him she wanted a divorce, he went into a rage, choking her until she passed out, she told police. When she awoke, he was raping her.
Afraid and ashamed, she said, she didn’t immediately report the assault to police at the Army installation in Grafenwoehr, Germany, where they were based.
Instead, she slept in a separate room while trying to plot her way out of the marriage.
Over the next two weeks that April, he would slip into her room in the middle of the night and rape her repeatedly, she said. He would “take it” any time he wanted, she said he told her.
“I finally decided I would leave the house either on my own volition or in a body bag,” Foy said.
She packed her bags on May 9. For five hours, she told police, they battled while he blocked the door. She finally escaped to a friend’s house.
She reported the attacks to his commander, Sgt. Marc Hickey, and the police. She expected he would be prosecuted. Neither Hickey nor Sanz Foy responded to requests for an interview.
A few days later, she learned that her husband, with his commander’s permission, had filed papers to have her sent back to the United States. She had three days to pack.
Later, a “case review committee” concluded that Foy had sexually abused her. He was given counseling. Investigators said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Foy.
Gillian Foy is staying with her sister on the East Coast while asking Congress and lawyers to investigate the handling of her case. Unable to find work, she is applying for welfare and hopes to return to school.
“The military talks a lot about how important family values are,” Foy said. “But if you are being abused and speak up, you are viewed as a troublemaker that needs to be sent away. What they said to my husband was: You can do this again.”
