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Soldier sues the British Government over Bosnia injuries

Sergeant Trevor Walker's lawyers will argue on Tuesday that the government behaved unfairly by changing the compensation rules without telling troops.

Sgt Walker was serving with a Nato peacekeeping force, helping to build a road in Bosnia, when the building he was living in came under shellfire.

"I'd just come from the shower and gone back to the room," he said. "Then there was a bang, flash. The next thing, I found myself on the floor. The shell had come through the front of the building, passed across the top of my left calf, and through my right knee joint, completely obliterating the knee itself."

Although surgeons managed to save his life, they were unable to save his right leg. Despite several painful operations designed to fuse his leg bones together, Sgt Walker was unable to cope with the pain in his reconstructed leg, and eventually had to have it amputated.

"Just the simple things, like playing with the kids to the extent that what you used to do, you can't do it," he said. "Walking from A to B, where previously I would have not bothered about walking 4 or 5 miles, just for a breath of fresh air, now its a couple of hundred metres."

Although Trevor Walker still has his job in the army, and has been promoted to a sergeant working in the stores, he is angry that he is not eligible for compensation.

The Army does pay compensation to soldiers injured in terrorist attacks connected to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but decided that the compensation rules would not apply to soldiers injured serving in the former Yugoslavia.

Sargeant Walker's lawyers will argue that decision was unfair, as the Ministry of Defence did not tell soldiers the rules had changed.

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