Widow’s fury after SAS pair cleared over deaths on 88F training march
THE widow of a soldier who died during an SAS selection exercise yesterday blasted the ‘blatant ignorance’ of defence top brass as his two commanding officers were acquitted of negligence.
Bryher Dunsby’s husband Corporal James Dunsby, 31, died of heat-related illness two weeks after an 18.5-mile march through the Brecon Beacons in temperatures of up to 31.2C (88.2F).
Two other reservists – Lance Corporal Edward Maher, 31, and Lance Corporal Craig Roberts, 24 – died of heat exhaustion during the training in July 2013.
Yesterday, their two commanding officers were acquitted following a week-long court martial at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire.
The men, whose names cannot be reported for legal reasons, had been accused of making ‘basic’ errors in the risk assessment of the march.
But Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett ruled they had no case to answer because the Ministry of Defence had failed to give them proper training in dealing with heat illness.
Mrs Dunsby said: ‘This court martial has revealed the shocking reality that there is still no official guidance for those conducting endurance training marches in the British Army on heat illness.
‘This is beyond unacceptable, and shows blatant ignorance to a vital need, where apparently three deaths are not enough to incite change.’
The Army said heat illness prevention guides had been updated three times since 2013 and were now ‘embedded’ in the training culture.