(OT) Porton nerve gas scientists escape criminal charges

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Porton nerve gas scientists escape criminal charges

 

Military scientists who secretly tested deadly nerve agents on unwitting

British servicemen and women will not face any criminal charges.

 

The tests involved a series of potentially lethal nerve agents, mustard gas

and the use of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD.

 

The servicemen were never told what chemicals were being tested on them and

many were under the illusion that they were helping to find a cure for the

common cold...

 

THERE, YOU SEE?

 

THE GOVERNMENT REALLY DOES LOVE YOU!

 

AND THEY WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING TO HARM OR DECEIVE YOU, SO RIGHT THIS WAY

TO THE DELOUSING CHAMBERS FOR YOUR SAFETY...

 

Porton nerve gas scientists escape criminal charges

 

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/08/nport08

..xml & sSheet=/news/2003/06/08/ixnewstop.html

 

Porton nerve gas scientists escape criminal charges By Sean Rayment, Defence

Correspondent

(Filed: 08/06/2003)

 

Military scientists who secretly tested deadly nerve agents on unwitting

British servicemen and women will not face any criminal charges, The

Telegraph has learned.

 

The Crown Prosecution Service says that there is insufficient evidence to

prosecute scientists based at Porton Down, the Government's chemical warfare

unit, where tests on thousands of service personnel were conducted between

1953 and 1983.

 

The ruling follows a three-year investigation by police which recommended

that charges be brought against three of the scientists, ranging from

assault to administering a noxious substance.

 

The CPS findings, which are expected to be made public in the next few

weeks, will dismay police, MPs and survivors of the tests who were hoping

that a prosecution would force the Ministry of Defence to reveal full

details of the programme.

 

The decision may prove controversial when a fresh inquest opens in September

into the death of Ronald Maddison, a member of the Royal Signals.

 

Mr Maddison died in agony after taking part in the tests in May 1953, after

200g of the nerve agent Sarin was dropped onto his skin by Porton Down

scientists.

 

A secret inquest held 10 days after Mr Maddison's death recorded a verdict

of death by misadventure: however, in November Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief

Justice, ruled that there should be a fresh hearing, saying: " Justice

requires that these matters are properly investigated " .

 

Matthew Taylor, the Liberal Democrat MP for Truro, who has campaigned on

behalf of victims of the nerve gas trials, said: " This decision allows the

Government off the hook: the probability is that we will now never get to

the bottom of this. We will never know who in the MoD took the decisions to

press ahead with these tests, what knowledge there was of the likely risk

from nerve agents and above all how many people really suffered. This ruling

keeps the genie firmly in the bottle. "

 

The tests were devised at the height of the Cold War. Thousands of soldiers

and RAF aircrew, many National servicemen, were duped into volunteering by

the promise of an extra two shillings pay and a 48-hour leave pass.

 

The tests involved a series of potentially lethal nerve agents, mustard gas

and the use of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD. The servicemen were never

told what chemicals were being tested on them and many were under the

illusion that they were helping to find a cure for the common cold.

 

In July 1999, Wiltshire Police launched Operation Antler after a former

serviceman approached Northumbria Police with allegations about events at

the chemical warfare base.

 

Detectives interviewed up to 2,000 former servicemen who volunteered to take

part in the tests, at a cost of £2 million. A file was sent to the CPS

recommending that criminal charges be brought.

 

Although the scientists who carried out the Sarin test on Mr Maddison have

since died, a spokesman for Wiltshire Police said last night that the CPS

might be forced to reconsider its ruling if the new inquest were to deliver

a verdict of unlawful killing.

 

Alan Care, a lawyer representing Lillias Craik, one of Mr Maddison's

sisters, said: " We've already seen a cover-up by the Home Secretary in 1953:

yet again, 50 years later, just when the Porton Down veterans could see a

glimmer of justice, an embarrassment of monumental proportions to the

Government is being buried. "

 

Ken Earl, 69, a former serviceman who twice took part in the tests at the

same time as Mr Maddison, said that he was angered by the CPS decision.

 

Mr Earl, the chairman of the Porton Down Veterans Support Group, told The

Telegraph: " I expected this from the CPS and I am very disappointed but it

will not stop me and others campaigning for a apology from the Government,

compensation for the Maddison family and those amongst our group who are

very seriously ill and for an independent public inquiry. "