Misadventure verdict on corporal

Corporal Rees leaves a wife and two children

An inquest jury returned a misadventure verdict on a corporal who suffered fatal injuries when he was crushed while loading vehicles bound for Iraq.

Cpl Thomas Rees was in charge of unloading vehicles from a lorry at Teesport Docks, Teesside, last May.

While the 32-year-old, of Pembrey, South Wales, guided one off the lorry, a second rolled down and crushed him between the two armoured vehicles.

The verdict followed an inquest at Teesside Magistrates' Court.

The inquest had heard Cpl Rees, who was based at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, was "exhausted" at the time of the incident on 23 May 2003.

Members of the First Battalion King's Regiment had been working all week to prepare the vehicles for shipping to the Gulf.

Cpl Rees, who was known to his family as Eirian, left two children and his widow Andrea, 28.

The inquest was told by a Health and Safety Executive officer that since the incident, the Army and civilian contractors Elliott Sergeant, of Southampton, had clarified their guidelines over manoeuvring vehicles.