TWO men who set up a national helpline for bullying victims in the armed forces have accused the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of thwarting their efforts.

Ged Walton and Malcolm Thorn, who have both served in the Army, launched the forces helpline a month ago and have had 22,000 hits in one month.

The pair set up the website to offer help to bullying and harassment victims after hearing reports of the deaths of four soldiers at the Deepcut base, in Surrey.

They said they had had national and local Press coverage, but attempts to publish information in the Army's official magazine Soldier and on British Forces radio had been refused.

Mr Walton, of Thornaby, Teesside, said he felt disappointed by the MoD's response.

He said: "We have been attacked by bureaucracy. They told us they could not put us on the radio because they did not think it was right as they already had their own helpline and felt it might clash.

"Next thing, we get a letter from Soldier magazine saying they were withdrawing our advertisement.

"We have had 22,000 hits. Somebody out there wants to speak to someone who had has nothing to do with the MoD.

"Soldiers do not want to go through the chain of command because they are worried someone will find out. We are completely independent of the Army and we offer an anonymous service."

Mr Walton, 39, set up the service with Mr Thorn, 44, who he served with in Kosovo. Mr Thorn, of Skipton, North Yorkshire, suffered mental and physical abuse in the Army, which led to him suffering a nervous breakdown.

A MoD spokeswoman said: "The reason why we said no to the organisation is because we did not want to confuse soldiers by saying to them they can go to all of these different organisations and thought it was best to send them in the direction of organisations that we knew the background to, such as the Samaritans."