Father joins in Red Caps' service

The father of a south Derbyshire soldier who was killed in Iraq has joined former Red Caps in a special service in Derby.

About 300 former military police officers from all over the world took part in a march to the Cathedral.

They went from the Market Place to Irongate before attending the service.

Cpl Russell Aston, from Coton in the Elms, was killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003. His father Mike said the military police personnel deserved respect.

He said: "They're in a terrible environment doing a wonderful job. I think that it is up to us to show respect for those people and I that is what I shall be doing."

Mr Aston still wants a full public inquiry to establish who was to blame for his son's death.

Sgt Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, Cpl Paul Long, 24, Cpl Simon Miller, 21, L/Cpl Benjamin Hyde, 23, and L/Cpl Thomas Keys, 20 also died in the attack on 24 June, 2003, in Al Majar al-Kabir in southern Iraq.

An inquest and an army board of inquiry found the six military policemen had been killed unlawfully and had not been issued with either satellite phones or sufficient ammunition.

But neither the inquest nor the inquiry found that anyone was to blame.

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