Coroner slams MoD for inquest delay

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

She said the MoD had added to the family's grief by wasting time and money in the lead-up to the inquest of Gordon Gentle, 19, unlawfully killed in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq on June 28 2004.

He might have survived the attack had his vehicle been fitted with vital bomb-disabling equipment, but the order to collect the kit was never passed on to his unit, said Selena Lynch, deputy assistant coroner for Oxfordshire.

On the day Fusilier Gentle died, the Electronic Counter Measure (ECM) intended for his vehicle was in a Basra storeroom, just 1km away from his unit's base.

Ms Lynch said a system which "appeared chaotic and lacking in clarity" meant that Fusilier Gentle's regiment, the Royal Highland Fusiliers (RHF), did not pick up the hi-tech kit until after he died. At the time of the soldier's death, "ironically, as we know now, the equipment was sitting in a storage container just 900m away", she said.

Before ruling that he was unlawfully killed, Ms Lynch said she had tried to hold the Oxford inquest earlier. But she said the MoD had delayed the release of documents, issued heavily-redacted versions and "unnecessarily limited" the information given to Fusilier Gentle's family.

"The MoD have a policy of disclosure that I would argue is both illogical and based on errors of law. Disclosure to the family has been unnecessarily limited," she said.

After the ruling Fusilier Gentle's mother Rose, 43 and from Glasgow, who has always said her son died because of an Army error, said the truth had finally come out.

"I have been able to turn to the MoD and say, I'm not a liar. I knew that equipment wasn't there," she said. "Justice has been done. The truth has come out."

Responding to the verdict, an MoD spokesman said: "Our thoughts and sympathies remain with the family, friends and colleagues of Fusilier Gordon Gentle at this difficult time. We were immensely saddened at his loss through an attack by insurgents in Basra in June 2004 and we deeply regret the series of events that contributed to it."