UK:Families fight plan for secret inquests non-combat deaths

Lance Corporal Matty Hull was killed when an American pilot mistakenly opened fire on his convoy in Iraq. Photograph: Bruce Adams/PA

Families fight plan for secret inquests in friendly-fire deaths
Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
The Observer, Sunday April 6 2008
Army families fear that the truth about the deaths of soldiers killed in friendly fire or other controversial incidents will be concealed under proposed government powers to hold secret inquests without a jury.

The plan to allow evidence to be assessed in private where national security or international relations are jeopardised follows controversy over cases such as that of Lance Corporal Matty Hull, killed when a US pilot mistakenly opened fire on his convoy in Iraq.

The Americans refused to provide cockpit video of the incident - relenting only after a copy was leaked to the media - or make their pilots give evidence. The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, has also recently gone to court to try to restrict the comments made by coroners on army deaths after a string of cases where verdicts highlighted failings in their kit.

Geoff Gray of the campaign group Deepcut and Beyond, whose 17-year-old son Geoff was found dead on guard duty at the now notorious Deepcut barracks, said the families of servicemen and women were entitled to all the information about how they died. 'To have an inquest in secret would be horrendous for the families: you are desperate for information about how people have died. And you have got the bigger picture, for instance in friendly fire incidents such as that of Matty Hull. The public must be aware of what's going on.'

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/06/military.iraq