PUT ARMY IN DOCK FOR MY SON’S DEATH ON SAS MARCH
Father’s plea for justice over three soldiers who died in blistering heat
A GRIEVING father yesterday called for the Army to be put on trial over his son’s death on a gruelling SAS march. Corporal James Dunsby, 31, was one of three reservists to suffer fatal heat exhaustion.
His father David said the whole of the military was responsible for the failures that led to the catastrophe in the Brecon Beacons.
When medics reached Cpl Dunsby his body temperature was 105.8F – the highest they had ever seen.
Today a coroner is expected to deliver a damning verdict on the tragedy on the hottest day of 2013.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Dunsby, 58, said it was lucky that six or seven men had not perished.
‘There was a weakness and a failing in the system – the whole lot needs to be looked at,’ he added.
‘It is distressing that out of however many men hold a commissioned rank in the Army, only two of them may find themselves in trouble.
‘There’s more than two people involved and it stems from the top
all the way down. So you do the lot. Nothing can bring James back but we need to make sure that there are things in place that will protect all the other soldiers who will be doing the same thing.
‘All of the guys above them, the guys that write the rules, the commanding officers, the whole lot need to be looked at and proportionate blame applied.’
Mr Dunsby, who suggested it was a case of ‘ corporate neglect’, spoke out after it emerged that:
Two soldiers, identified only as 1A and 1B, could face manslaughter charges;
Other soldiers, including doctors and medics, are likely to face a court martial;
The Ministry of Defence will launch an internal inquiry into the tragedy;
Families complained at witnesses giving evidence from behind a screen.
The inquest into the deaths of Cpl Dunsby, Lance Cpl Craig Roberts, 24, and Lance Cpl Edward Maher, 31, took four weeks,
It heard that the three men were among 78 soldiers on the test march, including 37 reservists, on July 13, 2013.
Around 50 witnesses, including the Director of Special Forces, gave evidence.
Despite sweltering temperatures of more than 80F, the men had to complete a 16-mile march around Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in the Beacons, within 8 hours 48 minutes, carrying 49lb of kit.
Thirteen soldiers failed to finish due to heat exhaustion – but at no point did ‘alarm bells’ ring out to stop the march.
A march even went ahead the following day – leading to one soldier having to have a defibrillator used on him after suffering heat illness.
The family of Lance Cpl Roberts said they were told it was not postponed because of the paperwork required.
The inquest heard that all of the soldiers wore GPS tracking devices but it took between 60 minutes and two and a half hours to find the three collapsed men.
Mr Dunsby, who spoke to the Mail and ITV News, said: ‘I don’t blame anyone personally. I blame the system in place. If they had been watching the tracker properly, and the vehicle was working, they could have got to James in under ten minutes.
‘There has to be an accountability and from what we have seen and heard we have not really had accountability.
‘The system let me down as a father and let my son down. The system failed.’
One officer said he did not spot Lance Cpl Maher showing as static on his computer, because his colleague had not ‘hovered the mouse’ over the soldier’s GPS tracking icon.
Soldiers thought there would be water supplies at each of the five checkpoints on the march but this was true of just three.
Such was the chaos that one soldier, known by the cipher 1X, had to beg civilian walkers to give them their water because he had run out.
Soldiers overseeing the march did not have radios and there was no phone signal on the mountains so they struggled to communicate with the emergency services. A key MoD document which outlined how to assess the risk of heat illness, and how to treat it, had not even been read by the commanding officer of one of the reserve regiments.
One combat medic said: ‘You are told not to read it.’
Those in charge, 1A, the training captain officer, and 1B, the training warrant officer, failed to conduct a proper risk assessment on the day of the march, it was also heard.
Cpl Dunsby, who served alongside Prince Harry in Afghani- stan and leaves a widow, Bryher, died of multiple organ failure two weeks after he collapsed. The other two died on the day.
Mr Dunsby added: ‘My son thought the British Army was the best in the world.
‘Soldiers will always die but in time of war we bury them as parents, we are not supposed to bury them in peace time, they are supposed to be burying us.
‘You don’t die of heat stroke in the UK and these men did.
‘For a long time I blamed myself because I wasn’t there to catch him when he fell, I wasn’t there to be with him when he lay there, when he was possibly frightened.’
In July last year, Dyfed-Powys Police investigated the two SAS personnel but decided there was not enough evidence for a successful prosecution of manslaughter.
After the coroner gives the verdict today, the civilian police and the military police will sit down together and discuss which force will press ahead with investigations.
Officers, including doctors and medics, could face negligence charges for their conduct on the tragic day. The charges carry a maximum two-year jail sentence under military law.
An MoD spokesman said that if the coroner had felt evidence heard during the inquest supported an ‘unlawful killing’ she would have been under obligation to adjourn the inquest but she had not done so.
‘There has to be accountability’ ‘I blamed myself’