‘Suffering Gulf veterans poisoned by nerve agent’
GULF War syndrome may have been caused by exposure to sarin nerve agent, say experts who ruled out depleted uranium as the culprit.
Up to 33,000 British veterans of the 1990/91 conflict are among troops suffering symptoms including fatigue, headaches, joint pain and respiratory disorders.
But the cause of their illness has defied researchers worldwide. Now UK tests on 154 US Gulf War vets, who also have the syndrome, has “conclusively” ruled out one widely-held theory. University of Portsmouth Prof Randall Parrish, who developed a new method of testing, said: “That depleted uranium is not, and never was, in the bodies of those who are ill at sufficient quantities to cause disease will surprise many.”
He believes the afflicted troops were exposed to sarin released when caches of Iraqi chemical weapons were destroyed. But he said more research was needed.
A PENSIONER who strangled his wife five days into the first lockdown was jailed for five years yesterday.
Anthony Williams, 70, told police he “choked the living daylights” out of wife Ruth, 67, after snapping while suffering depression and anxiety.
He was cleared of murder after a psychologist argued the lockdown “heightened” his anxiety, impairing his self-control.
Williams, of Cwmbran, South Wales, admitting manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility.
Judge Paul Thomas said: “The tragedy here is a lady of 67 who had so much to live for, had her life ended at the hands, literally, of a man she loved for 50 years.”
Williams told police he suffered sleepless nights in the run-up to the attack due to “trivial” fears about lockdown, including that he would run out of money.
He said he strangled his wife after she told him to “get over it”.
A SENIOR GP has been struck off after she had an illicit sexual relationship with a patient, descended into drug abuse and was caught driving while high on cocaine.
Mum-of-two Dr Fran Sanders was a partner at a medical centre but her life unravelled when she became stressed and her marriage fell apart.
The 47-year-old started a sixmonth affair with her patient of seven years, who had a history of substance abuse and mental health issues.
She inappropriately prescribed him and his pals drugs and in 2019 police stopped her for driving “erratically” in her home town of Bournemouth.
Sanders, who had a crack pipe in her Fiat 500, was disqualified for drug-driving by Poole magistrates.
The GP, who practised at the Westbourne Medical Centre, told a Medical Practitioners Tribunal that she was “vulnerable and taken advantage of by local drug dealers”.
But tribunal chair Paul Moulder said she abused trust, “putting her needs before those of her patient”.