WHY DID OUR SON DIE IN BOMB BLAST?
MUM’S HEARTBREAKING ACCOUNT OF HOW HER BOY WAS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN EXPLOSION
THE mother of a Huddersfield man killed in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan has given a dramatic account of how they were told the news of his death.
Michael Hampshire, known as Mic, was travelling in a European Union police vehicle convoy when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near Kabul’s international airport on Sunday, May 17, 2015.
The 29-year-old former soldier was working for the close protection team of the EU Police Mission in Afghanistan (Eupol) which supported the Afghan government in building a civilian police force.
Yesterday his parents Angela and Martin spent several hours listening to legal submissions for lawyers at a gruelling pre-inquest hearing at Bradford Coroner’s Court as Assistant Coroner, David Urpeth, prepares to open the inquest in the new year.
Angela, a mother-of-two, explained how she took the fateful phone call from a Human Resources representative of his employers at 6am on that Sunday.
She said: “The house phone rang, the one we have at the side of the bed. She wanted to speak to Martin. I told her Martin was in bed, that I was his wife and what was it about.
“She said it was a suicide car bomb incident and I thought: ‘Oh, my God.’ She told me that there was a body which gave me some comfort as Martin had told me that after such an explosion that there could be nothing left.
“I said I would tell Martin but I was concerned about his fiancée Claire Taylor who was asleep in the bedroom, I was very conscious of the impact on Claire – we had been only just been discussing their wedding plans the day before. She wanted a church wedding but Mic wasn’t bothered.
“Martin could see that I was distressed and totally broke down. I sneaked up to have a look at Claire who was still fast asleep. I thought I can’t do this and phoned her parents, Lorraine and Andy Taylor who drove over from York.
“I shook Claire, it was about 7.30am and said: ‘Michael, we have lost him’ and left her to her parents.”
Now Angela and her husband are hoping to get the truth about the circumstances of her son’s death at the inquest which opens on January 8 and is expected to last for at least five days if not longer.
Angela, 58, of Golcar said: “We believe that the route he was travelling on that day was out of bounds but Eupol are saying that they didn’t have any intelligence to the contrary.”
But, the couple say they will be at a serious disadvantage when the inquest starts as they cannot afford legal representation and are already £15,000 out of pocket. They estimate the cost of hiring a barrister would be as much as £50,000.
Three people were killed in total after the Taliban launched the suicide bomb attack in the Afghan capital Kabul.
Two Afghan teenage girls, described as bystanders, died in the blast, while at least 18 people were injured. The attack took place near the entrance to the international airport and targeted an EU police training mission vehicle.