MOD refuses to give compensation to family of soldier shot during exercise

Editorial Department • Published 27 Oct 2011 13:00

The Ministry of Defence is refusing to compensate the family of a UDR soldier shot dead during a training exercise at Letterbreen firing range near Enniskillen 40 years ago

Sergeant Major Bernard Adamson, from Cornagrade, Enniskillen, was fatally wounded after a colleague accidentally fired a live round instead of a blank. He died two weeks later.

Earlier this year a new inquest was held after his family raised concerns about the original enquiry into his death. The jury found the shooting was accidental but that the decision to use both live and blank ammunition contributed to the soldier's death.

The Adamson family argued that this demonstrated gross negligence on the part of the MoD (Ministry of Defence).

Now Mr. Adamson's daughter believes her mother deserves some form of compensation from the MoD.

"She was left with four children to raise on her own without any help from the UDR or the army," said Catherine Adamson. "They never gave her any help.

"After I read about the decision on Bloody Sunday recently, I would have thought that they had learnt their lesson," she added.

But the MoD has argued that it is prevented by law from paying compensation to the family.

Under the Crown Proceedings Act, the MoD said relatives of soldiers killed or injured prior to 1987 cannot claim for compensation.

The Adamson family's lawyer, Des Doherty, described the legislation in relation to the case as "laughable".

"The loss that the family have endured may have started in 1972 but it has continued because there has been no police investigation into this case at all, and what is even worse is that there was a military investigation in 1972, which was withheld from the coroner.

"Everything about this case is appalling and every way in which this family have been treated by the MoD is appalling," he said.

"I have no doubt that the family will continue to pursue this rigorously," he added.

Mr. Adamson was originally from Yorkshire and it was while serving with the regular army in Fermanagh that he met Patricia Gillen, from Enniskillen. The couple married and had four children.

Mr. Adamson retired from the army in 1970 and joined the UDR.

It was while playing the role of a terrorist during a training exercise at Letterbreen in April 1972 that he was fatally wounded.

He was shot by 19-year-old Private Duncan McLuckey, who had mistakenly loaded his rifle with live ammunition instead of blanks.

McLuckey was later fined £43 for his part in the death.

Mr. Adamson's widow Patricia, remarried and still lives in Enniskillen.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 27 Oct 11

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