ARMED FORCES’ RISING TOLL OF TRAGEDIES IN TRAINING
THE soldier who died on Monday is the tenth shot and killed in training in the past 16 years.
Between 2000 and 201 , 11 members of the Armed Forces died in live-firing incidents while training – nine were in the Army, one in the Navy and one was in the RAF.
Fusilier Dean Griffiths, 21, of the 1st Battalion the Royal Welsh, was fatally wounded at a Kent firing range in September 2011.
He had been told to stand behind a wooden wall which held targets while he waited his turn during a live-firing exercise.
A bullet passed through the wall, hitting his neck and killing him.
An inquest said the mistake was not malicious but his long-term partner reportedly won a six-figure compensation payout after successfully suing the MoD at the High Court.
In May 2012, Ranger Michael Maguire, 21, a member of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Irish Regiment, was killed during an exercise at Castlemartin Ranges, Pembrokeshire.
He was hit in the temple by a single machine gun bullet while relaxing at a secure location just outside a training range.
An inquest jury found Ranger Maguire was unlawfully killed.
The bullet was fired more than half a mile away and all bullets should have been aimed out to sea.
In November 2011, Fusilier James Wilkinson, 21, from the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was shot in the neck while manning a machine gun in a training exercise.
The incident happened when a fellow soldier asked to inspect a jammed gun, but it fired without warning.