Eight years on, the truth about how MoD bomb expert died

By Vanessa Allen. 4th August 2010

Secrets surrounding the death of a government explosives expert killed in a bomb-making experiment were revealed yesterday.

Father-of-two Terry Jupp died when a counter-terrorism test went wrong on a Ministry of Defence firing range.

Such was the secrecy surrounding his death on the highly classified project that his grieving family has campaigned for eight years to learn the truth about how he died.

When his inquest finally opened yesterday, his family said they had endured an 'unacceptable delay' and told the hearing they believed he was let down by inadequate safety precautions.

Mr Jupp was a senior scientist at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the same MoD agency which employed Dr David Kelly, the Government weapons expert whose mysterious death prompted the Hutton Inquiry.

The 46-year-old was part of a small team of British and U.S. scientists involved in assessing the destructive capabilities of terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.

The experiment attempted to measure the impact of homemade bombs similar to those used by terrorists. As part of the trial, Mr Jupp was told to mix a 22lb explosive charge using highly volatile chemicals at Foulness Island in Shoeburyness, near Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

The chemicals were mixed in a modified cement mixer before being poured into an old paint tin so they could be taken to the firing range.

However, the explosive ignited unexpectedly and Mr Jupp, who worked for the MoD for 25 years, suffered almost 90 per cent burns.

The heat from the explosion, which blew out all the windows of the building in which he was working, was so intense that it melted his hair to his head and charred grass up to 25ft away.

Mr Jupp died six days later on August 20, 2002 when his life support machine was switched off. Det Sgt Paul Easterbrooke, of the MoD police, said: 'He was overwhelmed by a fireball as the mixture spontaneously ignited.'

The MoD police and the Health and Safety Executive investigated the accident, but a subsequent Board of Inquiry report was never made public.

The secrecy surrounding Mr Jupp's work meant the chemicals involved were not named, but referred to only by letters.

His parents, Roy and Anne Jupp, said they believed lax safety precautions were to blame for his death.

In an emotional statement to the inquest, his widow Pat said his injuries were so severe that she could not say goodbye.

'I could not hold his hand, I could not kiss him and I found I couldn't even sit there and stroke his face,' she said.

'I was absolutely devastated at losing the man I loved, the man I had spent 30 years of my life with, but at that time I could only feel angry, mad, and most of all enraged.'

Mrs Jupp, of Hatfield in Hertfordshire, said the death had led to their children Katherine and Matthew, who were 15 and 11, being bullied at school.

The hearing at Southend Coroners Court continues.

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‘Deaths could occur which could have been stopped. We are walking on a tightrope’
Ross Lydall

A dozen or so pages into Lieutenant Mark Evison's diary is a line that stops the heart. “At the moment life is great,” he wrote. Fifteen days later he was dead.

The leather-bound notebook was a Christmas present from a girlfriend. Mark, an officer in the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards, took it when he was deployed to Afghanistan four months later.

He made his first diary entry on April 15 last year. His last, on May 7 2009, was not about Army life, but it may as well have been: “If life was so easy, then it would be easily boring.”

Now the diary, written flawlessly in pencil, is one of the mementos of a remarkable life cherished by his mother, Margaret. Another is a photo album of Mark's life compiled for her and Mark's sister Elizabeth by his school and Army friends. The inscription reads: “A hero is a man who is afraid to run away.”

Mark was 26 when he died after coming under intense fire from the Taliban. On May 9 he had been shot in the right shoulder while leading his 30-man platoon on patrol in the Nad-e Ali area of Helmand province. He died three days later in Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham. The 39-minute delay in a helicopter arriving meant he had lost consciousness by the time he reached Camp Bastion field hospital in Helmand. He had continued to command his troops but needed CPR resuscitation around 55 minutes after being shot.

Despite the heroic efforts of his platoon to extract him while under fire, and of the medics at Bastion — where he underwent two operations and was given 42 units of blood, including some of their own — he never regained consciousness. The gunshot had ruptured a main artery.

By the time he arrived in Birmingham, the dramatic loss of blood pressure resulted in brain stem death. His family agreed to switch off his life support machine when it became clear that he could not survive independently. “His brain was unable to tell his body to breathe,” Mrs Evison explained.

His death was announced the following day at Prime Minister's Questions. His commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, whose own death followed two months later, said Mark was “one of the finest young officers of his generation and a truly remarkable young man”.
Lt/Col Thorneloe added: “His platoon gave him the affectionate nickname 007' — a testament to their high regard for his capability, style and charisma. They would have followed him anywhere.”

Mrs Evison, from Dulwich, has just returned from a 10-day trip to Afghanistan. “I wanted to find out what Mark had given his life for,” she said. She is sympathetic to Mark's view “that war might not be the answer”.

Mrs Evison travelled to Bamiyan, north-west of Kabul, in a fact-finding group led by former ITN war correspondent Sandy Gall. The area is safer than the killing fields of Helmand. But the Afghan mentality is the same. “They take to fighting very easily,” she said.

I ask whether she was angry that her son had gone to Afghanistan. “Not really,” she says. “Most soldiers who sign up do love the Army. Young men like doing challenging things.

“Mark chose to be in the Army. I talked to him on the phone two days before he died. I never had the opportunity to ask him what he made of it, and what he thought about the war.

“I can only say as a mother, of course I'm devastated ...” Her voice breaks off. “I find it extremely upsetting that Mark died. I wish in an odd sort of way that he hadn't died in such an alien and violent country, in the circumstances in which he died — bleeding to death.”

Mark's interest in the Army began at Dulwich College, where he was the best cadet two years in a row. He won a music scholarship to Charterhouse, playing piano and cello. He played rugby but excelled at all sports and, aged 17, ran the London Marathon in three hours 14 minutes. Two gap years followed, including 11 months as a jackeroo in the Australian outback. Sandhurst came after four years at Oxford Brookes University. He was commissioned into the Welsh Guards on December 14, 2007.

He had been in Afghanistan for four weeks last year when he was fatally wounded on May 9. He had been trying to get radio reception when he was hit by a single shot. Two comrades hoisted him on their shoulders and ran back through fire to their patrol base 400m away. Gunner Steven Gadsby's heroism won him the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.

Mark was a priority one case to be returned to Selly Oak within 24 hours. But he could not fly until the medics at Bastion had stabilised him.
“They spent Saturday trying to save him,” Mrs Evison said. “He had two big operations. They used up a huge amount of the hospital's blood. Some of the staff were directly linked to him because he was needing so much blood.

“They brought him back to Selly Oak. The consultant sat me down and explained about brain stem death. He didn't think Mark had much chance. My daughter was very upset by the conversation and left the room. My ex-husband, who lives in Germany, arrived a few hours later.

“I spent a day-and-a-half with him [Mark]. One friend who works in Hong Kong bought a ticket and saw him before we switched the machine off.”

The inquest followed this July. It ended with the coroner recording a verdict that Mark was killed by the enemy while on active duty for his country.
But Mrs Evison was left dissatisfied that it failed to solve the mystery of why it took so long for a rescue helicopter to arrive. “I have not really achieved closure yet,” she admits. “The fact that some of these issues were not dealt with properly, were not dealt with in a transparent way, doesn't help.

“At the coroner's inquest it was decided that he most probably would have died anyhow but there was some doubt about that, and there was a helicopter delay of 39 minutes. The Ministry of Defence never explained the reasons for the helicopter delay. And the impact of it on Mark's brain death rather than his body was never considered.”

The facts as they are known are this: Mark was about 16 minutes' flying time from Camp Bastion when he was shot near Haji Alem at 8.40am. He was eventually picked up by an American Black Hawk helicopter which, unlike the Chinooks, didn't have high-tech life-saving equipment on board, at 9.45am. (The delay is measured from the time his injury was notified to the control room — 0846 — to the time to authorise a helicopter to take off —0925. The coroner accepted that 39 minutes should be the official delay figure.) He was on the operating table at Camp Bastion at 10.03am.

Mrs Evison believes there are three possible explanations for the delay. One: that the helicopter was sent on a less serious Afghan civilian rescue mission first. Two: that there was a misclassification of the seriousness of Mark's injuries (this did happen but Mark's priority status was raised within five minutes). Three: there were no helicopters available.

Mrs Evison said: “I know that in Mark's case a local civilian had been injured a few days earlier. I think the helicopter had come in after 25 minutes. One of the soldiers had said to Mark: Well, sir, if anything happens to us I hope it will get there quicker'. Mark reassured him and said Of course it will'. Of course it didn't.”

There were further problems. His platoon's medical officer was not nearby and colleagues did not have HemCon, a blood-clotting agent used on extreme wounds. (The MoD says the inquest found that only by installing a vascular arterial clamp, which is used during surgery, could Mark's bleeding have been stemmed.)

Mark had foretold in his diary of the dangers posed by these shortages. “I have a lack of radios, water, food and medical equipment,” he wrote on April 21. “Injuries will be sustained which I will not be able to treat and deaths could occur which could have been stopped. We are walking on a tightrope...”

Mrs Evison has set up the Mark Evison Foundation to inspire others to pursue their personal challenges. Thousands have been raised and it has made its first grants — including one to two Dulwich College schoolboys, who managed to climb the UK's four tallest peaks in four days, using only public transport between the mountains. Another will pay for young musicians to spend a day in a recording studio.

“The process of dealing with Mark's death has been quite difficult,” she said. “There have been times when I just long for him to come home, and a bit of me thinks he will. There were months and months of semi-denial, when you imagine this is all a nightmare. It's slightly made worse by having strong visual images of him. You know if he came through the door how he would be.

“I try to get on with my life. I try to count my blessings. I have set up the foundation, in an effort to help his young friends to deal with his death. It was lovely when we gave our first award and you think something positive has come out of this. But it's still the case that what I would like best is for Mark to be back.”

For information on the Mark Evison Foundation, visit markevisonfoundation.org
    

eath crash parents' hell

27 August 2010
By Lisa Ettridge
THE family of a Blackpool soldier who died after a "fishtail" stunt in a car went tragically wrong say they do not point any finger of blame for his death.
Nicholas Bushell, 17 of Watson Road, South Shore battled for life in hospital for five days following a horror crash which left him with massive head injuries.

The 18-year-old driver of the car, Lee Smith from Northern Ireland was killed instantly in the accident which took place in Hampshire on June 15 this year.

Two other teenagers were also injured.

At an inquest hearing held in Basingstoke, the court heard how the driver of the Fiat Punto had been shaking the steering wheel to make the car "fishtail" in the moments before the crash.

The Coroner told how the young driver's "bravado" could have been responsible for the accident and recorded a verdict of accidental death for both teenagers.

But Nicholas' family say they are not interested in finding blame. His mother Beverley Danks said: "Nick's dad and I don't blame anybody for what happened. It was just a terrible accident.

"Nick and Lee were really good friends, all four of the lads were good friends, this is a tragedy for all concerned.

"Naturally the inquest was very upsetting, especially when one of the boys Rhys gave his account of the accident.

"It's still very hard to come to terms with and we think about Nick constantly, but we're taking every day as it comes."

The young Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers had been out for a drive on the night of the collision which took place on a winding country road close to their barracks.

The inquest heard how loud music had been playing in the car and the driver lost control.

A passing motorist dialled 999 after seeing what he described as a "mangled wreckage" in a ditch.

The four friends had recently completed basic soldier training and had joined 10 Training Battalion at REME's Prince Philip Barracks in Bordon.

Police Accident investigator Andy McDonnell told the inquest all four teenagers had been wearing seatbelts and been travelling around 50mph when the car hit the tree. He put the crash down to driver error claiming it could have been down to "a display of youthful exuberance."

North East Hampshire Coroner Andrew Bradley, said: "Lee Smith may have been displaying some bravado or maybe having some fun, but in the course of that he clearly lost control."

Pathologist's shocking errors spark new calls for full inquest into death of Iraq weapons inspector Dr David Kelly

By Glen Owen
Last updated at 3:17 AM on 5th September 2010

Body blow: Dr Nicholas Hunt is under investigation after making 14 mistakes in a post-mortem

The doctor who carried out the post-mortem on Dr David Kelly was last night at the centre of growing calls for an inquest into the weapons inspector’s death following claims that he ‘mixed up’ the remains of two servicemen.

Dr Nicholas Hunt faces a formal investigation after making 14 mistakes in his report on the death of an ­airman in Afghanistan, including wrongly recording his height, weight, hair and eye colour.

The dead man’s mother, who says she ‘went through hell’ because of the errors, is calling for Dr Hunt to be struck off.

And last night a group of eminent doctors, who are going to the High Court to seek an inquest into the 2003 death of Dr Kelly, said the consistency of Dr Hunt’s evidence would be key to their challenge to the ­Hutton Inquiry’s verdict that Dr Kelly killed himself by slashing his wrist with a blunt gardening knife.

Nicolette Williams was still mourning the loss of her 20-year-old son Christopher, who was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan in August 2007, when she discovered Dr Hunt’s autopsy report was riddled with mistakes.

Dr Hunt issued two further reports before the details were accurate – by which time the coroner was so alarmed he ordered a second pathologist to review Dr Hunt’s work.

Mrs Williams said: ‘They had the right details of Christopher’s injuries, but the description of his body was that of another man. It looks as though the pathologist got them mixed up. The inquest was adjourned at Christmas and I did not know it was Christopher until the second post-mortem report came through in March. It rocked my whole world. I contemplated taking my own life.’

The coroner, Donald Coutts-Wood, apologised to Mrs Williams, calling the delay ‘utterly wrong’. The Disciplinary Committee for forensic pathologists is now investigating the case.

Dr Michael Powers QC, who is representing the five doctors making the case for a full inquest into Dr Kelly’s death, argues that Dr Hunt appears to have contradicted the evidence he gave to Lord Hutton in comments made recently.
Mysterious: A group of eminent doctors doubt that Doctor Kelly killed himself by slashing his wrist with a blunt gardening knife

Mysterious: A group of eminent doctors doubt that Doctor Kelly killed himself by slashing his wrist with a blunt gardening knife

Last month, Dr Hunt broke seven years of silence when he said that the death of Dr Kelly was a ‘textbook suicide’. He claimed that he had found ‘big, thick clots of blood’ inside Dr Kelly’s sleeve.

But in his evidence to Lord Hutton he had only said that there was ‘some blood staining within the sleeve of the jacket’.

The submission to Attorney General Dominic Grieve, expected to be made next week, will demand a fresh inquiry on the grounds that the Hutton Inquiry has been demonstrated to be ‘insufficient’ and ‘irregular’.

Dr Powers told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Dr Hunt has called this a “textbook suicide”, yet he did not give any evidence to Lord Hutton on whether or not he thought it was suicide, which is not surprising given that he is a pathologist and not a psychiatrist.’

Last week Mr Grieve asked to review secret medical files to decide whether it is necessary to hold a new inquiry.


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