Call for second probe into Iraq deaths rejected
CALLS FOR a new investigation into the Iraq death of a Red Cap from Yorkshire killed along with three of his colleagues have been rejected by the Attorney General.
Lance Corporal Ben Hyde from Northallerton, 23, was killed alongside Tom Keys, 20, Corporals Russell Aston, 30, and Simon Miller, 21, when a 400-strong mob descended on a police station in Majar al-Kabir in June 2003. Their families wrote to the Government’s chief legal adviser Jeremy Wright in 2014 to ask for a new inquest on the grounds that fresh evidence had come to light suggesting their deaths could have been prevented.
“A second inquest would give us the chance to let everybody know what really happened that day and whose fault it was,” Ben’s father John Hyde said when they appealed for a new inquest.
He believes that with a radio, Ben may have been saved by a rescue team. “One soldier, in a sworn statement, said had he known the lads were there, he could have got them out,” he said. “That was never taken into account.”
But now, Mr Wright concluded in a statement that none of the grounds of challenge set out had a reasonable “prospect of success” and he could not therefore authorise a referral to the High Court.
“I offer my deepest sympathy to the families for their loss – and my gratitude for the sacrifices that their sons made for this country,” he said. “I have given this matter considerable thought but, as disappointing as it will be for the families involved, it would not be right to pass this matter to the High Court when the tests for a new inquest are not met.”
The original inquest in 2006 found that the four Red Caps, as military police officers are known, had been unlawfully killed.
Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner wrote to the Government expressing concern about the lack of ammunition issued to the men, inadequate communications and the roadworthiness of the vehicles they were driving.
However a dossier of new evidence from two former soldiers was submitted to Mr Wright in support of a claim that there was intelligence from GCHQ – the secret electronic “listening” agency – that an attack was imminent and could have been used to prevent the men’s deaths.
Lawyers representing the families said the information came from a former SAS lieutenant colonel, known as Colonel X, and another former officer identified as Captain T. In addition, it has been claimed that four of the Red Caps had been captured by the mob and were later executed by an insurgent called Rufeiq, a known target of the allied forces.