A gay veteran said being starved, denied sleep and subjected to “sadistic” internal examinations on an RAF station has left him with flashbacks and depression 35 years on. Simon Hinchley-Robson was discharged from RAF Brawdy in Pembrokeshire in 1986 after requesting an Aids test. However, Capt Hannah Graf said she had a positive experience of coming out as transgender while in the Army in 2013. The Ministry of Defence said it was important to learn from LGBT veterans. A review is under way into the impact of a law that made it illegal to be gay in the British military until 2000. The rule is thought to have affected about 5,000 people. Mr Hinchley-Robson, from Blackheath, London, was working as a chef at the former RAF satellite station when he became unwell and was diagnosed with glandular fever. After seeing the infamous Aids campaign TV adverts featuring crashing headstones, he decided to ask his doctor for an Aids test. He said what followed led him to live with depression, anxiety and flashbacks more than 35 years later. “This doctor went absolutely ballistic – he called me from a pig to a dog,” he said. He said he was immediately transferred to a civilian hospital where he remained for 10 days before being returned to RAF Brawdy where he was arrested by a station warrant officer at the gates. He was informed he had admitted being gay by asking for an Aids test. The next four days were spent being interrogated while being denied food and sleep, being hit, laughed at and subjected to an internal examination every four to five hours, he said. “It was awful,” he said. “They left me in such a state that I was physically bleeding. They did it for sadistic gratification, it was for nothing else.” He said despite threats of an 18-months prison sentence he was eventually discharged, with the station warrant officer publicly ripping his rank off his uniform and telling him he was a disgrace to the air force. He was left with no home, no job and had no choice but to reveal his sexuality to his family. Now he wants answers from the review: “I want to know who authorised it, why did they authorise it and for them to stand up and say ‘we were wrong, I’m sorry’.”