Families Can Sue Govt Over Iraq Troop Deaths

Families of British soldiers killed fighting in Iraq have won the right to bring damages claims against the Government.

Relatives want to sue for negligence and to make claims under human rights legislation.

Supreme Court justices has announced that they can do both.

The Ministry of Defence had argued that soldiers on a battlefield abroad did not have the same human rights as ordinary citizens.

Families started legal action as a result of the deaths of a number of British soldiers following the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Their victory at the UK's highest court follows a hearing in London in February.

The decision means that claims can now proceed to trial.

The claims relate to allegations the Ministry of Defence failed to provide safe vehicles.

Some of the vehicles involved were Snatch Land Rovers, which were accused of being vulnerable to improvised explosive devices.

Jocelyn Cockburn, the solicitor for the families, said: "These are very difficult decisions. The courts are used to making judgements where there is a balance of interests.

"What the Ministry of Defence have been arguing is that they have no duty to protect soldiers when they are deployed abroad and I think it was a really important principle that the families have managed to establish today, that that can't be correct.

"Although their sons died because of enemy fire, they were complaining about the Land Rovers they were put in and the fact that it had been known for years that they were faulty."

A group of families started legal action as a result of the deaths of a number of soldiers who died in Iraq.

Corporal Stephen Allbutt, 35, of Sneyd Green, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and Trooper David Clarke, 19, of Littleworth, Staffordshire, died when their Challenger 2 tank was hit by another Challenger 2 tank in a "friendly fire" incident in March 2003.

Private Phillip Hewett, 21, of Tamworth, died in July 2005 after a Snatch Land Rover was blown up.

Similar explosions claimed the lives of Private Lee Ellis, 23, of Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, in February 2006, and Lance Corporal Kirk Redpath, 22, of Romford, Essex, in August 2007, lawyers say.

Susan Smith, the mother of Phillip Hewett, said after the verdict: "The MoD will now have to make sure our soldiers are safe abroad.

"What we have done now will make a lot of difference to people in the future. There will have to be protection in place.

"Phillip is dead. Nothing is going to bring him back. But there are other boys out there. We don't understand why the MoD didn't just admit they got it wrong years ago."

The issues that came before before the Supreme Court have already been considered at the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The issue was whether the families could bring an action under human rights legislation as well as under a claim of negligence.

Relatives say the Ministry of Defence (MoD) failed to provide armoured vehicles or equipment which could have saved lives, and should pay compensation.