Bid for new soldier inquest fails

The father of a Welsh Territorial Army soldier killed in Iraq five years ago has failed in an attempt to reopen an inquest into his son's death.

Anthony Pritchard's son, Corporal Dewi Pritchard, from Bridgend, was killed in Basra in 2003 by gunmen in an ambush.

He had claimed his 35-year-old son was sent out on a "dangerous mission with inadequate equipment and preparation".

The High Court said the case, brought after a recent legal ruling, was too long after the original inquest.

Mr Pritchard had complained that a two-and-a-half-hour inquest held in October 2005, ruling that his son was unlawfully killed, was inadequate and did not meet the standards of the "right to life" provisions of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

He wanted a full investigation of all the facts, including why Cpl Pritchard was driving an unprotected vehicle along a road with a history of attacks.

'Closure'

Lawyers had argued that a recent court judgement made clear the coroner at the inquest, Nicolas Gardiner, should have widened the scope of the inquest so it complied with Article 2.

However Mr Justice Sullivan said it was too long since the inquest ruling, and Mr Pritchard could not rely on a change in the law so long after the event.

He said: "There are powerful public policy reasons for not permitting this kind of belated challenge to an inquest which was accepted at the time to be lawful.

"It would be most undesirable if a decision by a coroner in 2005 could be reopened in 2008 simply on the basis that, with the benefit of hindsight, it can arguably be said that the coroner applied the wrong legal test."

He added it would be traumatic for all involved, and there was a powerful interest in maintaining the finality of the original decision and securing "closure" for everyone involved.

'Promise'

Mr Pritchard, of Pentre, Rhondda Cynon Taff, also complained the former prime minister, Tony Blair, reneged on a promise to Cpl Pritchard's widow Tracey that a full Military Board of Inquiry would investigate his son's death.

The court heard the former defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, wrote in 2004 that it had been decided by the Army "chain of command" there would be no board of inquiry.

Cpl Pritchard, a father-of-two, was an electronics engineer.

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