Nuke-test veteran demands justice for son who died 60 years ago
A VETERAN serviceman from Greater Manchester who was part of a nuclear test radiation experiment has confronted Boris Johnson over the death of his young son 60 years ago.
John Morris, 84, from Rochdale, witnessed four nuclear bombs in 1957 and later found his son, Steven, dead in his cot at just four months old. It took him six decades to get the autopsy report, which later revealed he had deformed lungs.
Holding back tears, his voice broke as he added: “I just want justice for my family, and for Steven.
After being presented by the M.E.N.’s sister paper, The Mirror, with evidence of missing medical records and blood samples taken but hidden from health archives, Mr Johnson agreed it could amount to a criminal offence committed against veterans.
He said: “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Everybody I’ve heard from, thank you for your testimony. It’s especially heart-rending to listen to what you have to say.”
John banged the table in the prime minister’s office in Parliament as he said: “We protected this coun- try by providing the nuclear deterrent, but we’ve been let down by successive governments. My wife and I were arrested on suspicion of murder, and I’ve had a lifetime of worry and illness. I had blood and urine taken which is not in my medical records, and I’ve been refused a war pension.”
The visibly-moved PM responded: “I’m so sorry, so, so sorry for your loss. You need a much better picture of what on Earth is going on.” The 40-minute meeting also heard from other victims, including
Steve Purse, whose father David was in control of the airfield at Maralinga in South Australia, where the UK government conducted 593 experiments on radioactive triggers over a decade. Steve was born with undiagnosable medical conditions.
The PM and his advisers, including top civil servants and Veterans Minister Leo Docherty, also heard from Laura Jackson, 56, of Cheltenham, who had three cancers removed from her face, a heart attack and miscarriages. And her brother Alan Owen, of campaign group Labrats, told the PM how he had also ‘died’ from a heart attack nine weeks ago, and was now being kept alive by an internal defibrillator. The Mirror showed the PM evidence of wives and children being sent to nuke-blasted Christmas Island on a morale-boosting trip, of mothers and daughters with dozens of miscarriages, and told him how infant mortality among veterans’ children is five times the norm.
The meeting ended with John telling the PM: “It’s the Queen’s Jubilee and the 70th anniversary this October of the first nuclear bomb test. It’s the ideal moment, prime minister, for you to look me in the eye and tell me, ‘you deserve a medal.’ Or say, ‘sod off.’”
John’s granddaughter Laura, 32, from Salford, then told the PM he must decide soon ‘because veterans are dying, every day, without justice.’ Mr Johnson was given a deadline of October to resolve the issue, and told campaigners he and his team would get working on it straight away.
“You’ve produced all sorts of evidence that seem to be more than likely, and we need to come back to you,” he said. “I was very surprised to hear when this was raised that something hadn’t been done for you before.”
The meeting was organised after Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour MP for Salford and Eccles, asked the PM to meet her and the veterans. She said: “The PM seemed to be appalled at what we told him, and I think genuinely shocked by what’s happened to these men and their families.
“Now we need to make sure he does deliver the justice he promised us, and to have that moment of national recognition and acknowledgement to end this scandal once and for all.”
The meeting followed a year-long Mirror campaign in which veterans demanded the PM ‘Look Me In The Eye’ after they were refused a medal three times on the grounds there was no ‘risk and rigour’ to the testing programme.