KILLED BY A COMRADE
Court martial told of tragic freak accident
KILLED in a freak accident, soldier Adam Moralee died just weeks before he was due to wed. Now a former comrade has been jailed for the tragedy which happened as British forces pulled out of Afghanistan. And a second soldier, so traumatised by what happened, has had to be discharged suffering severe post traumatic stress disorder.
Royal Engineer Moralee, from Ryton, Gateshead, who was due to marry fiancée, Emma, 14 weeks later, died instantly when he was impaled on the metal teeth of an earthmoving digger.
A court martial heard how Sapper Thomas Lloyd accidentally hit a lever to lower the digger bucket as he cleaned the inside of the vehicle, before it was re-deployed to the UK.
Lloyd, 23, was ordered to serve nine months for what a judge called “an utterly tragic incident.”
He said: “Sapper Moralee didn’t die in combat, he died as a result of an avoidable industrial accident.”
A soldier for three years and due to be promoted to lance corporal, he was described after his death as a “rising start” by his commanding officer.
The two soldiers in court were part of a team from 32 Engineer Regiment who were washing down equipment to make sure it was safe to bring back from the war zone.
Originally Lloyd, an Army junior rugby player, and former Lance Corporal Philip Smith, 28, had been charged with manslaughter following the incident at Camp Bastion in March 2014, but military authorities reduced the charge to one of neglect of duty, which both admitted.
Smith, who had been in charge of the cleaning party, has since suffered so badly he was medically discharged from the Army.
The hearing at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire was told Lloyd had been cleaning the inside of the earth moving bucket loader when he inadvertently knocked a lever which lowered the heavy metal bucket onto his colleague.
Peter Moulson QC, prosecuting, said the machines had to be thoroughly cleaned and inspected before being cleared to be returned to the UK “free from all potential contaminants.”
A soldier cleaning another machine heard someone shout “move” and saw the bucket fall forward and strike Sapper Moralee on the leg, pulling him down and underneath it.
The hearing was told one of the bucket teeth penetrated the soldier’s
shoulders killing him instantly.
At the time of the tragedy Lloyd was in the driver’s cab cleaning the inside of the machine and accidentally knocked the tilt arm lever which caused the bucket to fall after failing to engage an automatic hydraulic cut off.
When interviewed Lloyd said that as he finished cleaning part of the cab he heard shouting and the sound of metal hitting the concrete and turned round to see Sapper Moralee hanging from the bucket teeth.
Lloyd was ordered to serve nine months in a military detention centre and Smith to eight months in prison suspended for 18 months,
Assistant Judge Advocate General Alan Large told them Lloyd had failed to take precautions to prevent the bucket from falling and Smith, who was supervising the cleaning had admitted being negligent in allowing the bucket to be raised without it being secured.
Sapper Moralee’s mother Lynn, was at the hearing and in a statement said the loss of her only child had destroyed her life and at times had felt like committing suicide.
She said: “You feel like you are the midst of a nightmare which will never end.”
The court was told after the tragedy, his father died from a brain tumour.
His widow said: “Since Adam’s death life has become a constant uphill battle. There have been occasions when I have felt like taking my own life.”
Following Sapper Moralee’s death more than 600 people gathered to say their last goodbyes when his coffin was carried into Newcastle’s St Nicholas’ Cathedral.