Deafening!
Ex-gunner claims £50k after ‘ears damaged by the boom of artillery’
A FORMER soldier who claims he was deafened by firing the Army’s biggest gun is suing the Ministry of Defence for more than £50,000.
Royal Artillery gunner Royston Penhallurick says he was not given proper ear protection while firing the FH70 155mm howitzers
Now 56, he says he has been left disabled and needs hearing aids in both ears.
Mr Penhallurick, who served in the regiment from 1980 to 2004, fired the 30ft-long guns – which have a range of 18 miles – as well as other weapons. He says he was also exposed to noise from Lynx and Puma helicopters ‘with no hearing protection’.
At stages of his career, Mr Penhallurick, who served in Northern Ireland, the Gulf War and the Balkans, claims he had ‘daily exposure’ to noise from SA80 automatic rifles, machine guns, Scimitar and Scorpion light tanks, Warrior and FV432 personnel carriers and 30mm cannon.
He is claiming damages ‘likely to exceed £50,000’.
In his claim, filed with the High Court, his lawyers say: ‘Mr Penhallurick served in the Royal Artillery as a servant of the Crown, for whom the defendant [the MoD] is responsible.’
They say he was exposed to gun and vehicle noise ‘during numerous exercises’ on Salisbury Plain and at Otterburn in Northumberland with levels peaking at around 140 decibels, the limit at which human
‘Failed to advise of the dangers’
ears can hear without the sound becoming painful.
They allege his superiors ‘failed to advise of the dangers of exposure to loud noise’ and failed ‘to provide adequate hearing protection’.
Mr Penhallurick, of Stoke, is asking the court to let him bring his claim outside a tenyear limit on civil actions. His lawyers say he didn’t know he could claim until he had been out of the Army for more than a decade. The MoD case is not yet available from the court.