Mystery soldier witness to UDR man's shooting

Editorial Department • Published 25 Feb 2010 10:35

The failure to trace a mystery soldier who could hold vital clues about the death of an officer shot during a weapons training exercise almost 40 years ago may delay a new inquest, a court has heard.

UDR Warrant Officer Bernard Adamson, 30, was fatally wounded when he was hit with a live bullet on the firing range in Co Fermanagh in 1972 during a battlefield simulation that was supposed to only involve blank cartridges.

The father of four from Enniskillen was shot by 19-year-old private Duncan Munro McLuckie in an incident treated as a tragic accident. No criminal charges were brought against Private McLuckie. He was later fined £43 in a military tribunal into the circumstances of the incident.

WO Adamson was playing the role of an enemy target when he was shot in the side. He died two weeks later in hospital in Belfast.

Over 35 years after an initial inquest returned an open verdict, Mr Adamson`s relatives successfully applied to Attorney General Baroness Scotland to initiate a new coroner's probe after raising concerns about the original hearing.

It has since emerged that McLuckie is currently serving a life sentence for murder in HM Prison Frankland in Durham in connection with a separate killing.

Yesterday, a preliminary hearing in Belfast ahead of the second inquest was told that the Army had been unable to track down another officer who was on the Letterbreen range near Enniskillen when Mr. Adamson was shot.

Northern Ireland`s Senior Coroner John Leckey conceded that news, coupled with the failure to resolve outstanding legal aid issue for McLuckie, could see the agreed March 23, start date put back.

The only information the MOD have about the potential witness at the hearing is his surname - Waugh - and rank - Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant (RQMS).

Crown solicitor Majella Meehan, representing the MOD, admitted the military had thus far failed to find him.

"We don`t even know if Mr Waugh is still alive," she said.

She told Mr Leckey that there were currently 200 Waughs in receipt of Army pensions and without a Christian name or address the task of establishing whether one of these was the officer in question was very difficult.

Lawyers representing both the Adamson family and McLuckie hit out at the failure to trace the officer.

Ivor McAteer, on behalf of the family, questioned how the MOD could not know basic information about one of its soldiers.

"We have a solider that was employed by the MOD at a particular time, in a particular post and the MOD is saying they can`t identify him by name," he said.

"That is quite ridiculous," he added.

Ms Meehan pointed out that RQMS Waugh`s name had not been mentioned in the original investigations in the wake of the shooting and was only brought up when another soldier was re-interviewed two years ago.

That had further complicated efforts to locate him, she added.

Karen Quinliven, representing McLuckie, noted the the Bloody Sunday inquiry had managed to find every single soldier who had been in Derry on the day of that incident, which was also in 1972.

She noted that as well as details about RQMS Waugh, the MOD had been unable to so far produce the weapon that fired the fatal shot and range orders and manuals from the Letterbreen facility.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 25 Feb 10

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