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Unlawful Death at Porton Down

 

About Porton Down

Porton Down was set up near Salisbury in Wiltshire in 1916 at the height of the First World War. It was a top-secret chemical weapons centre and the government did not admit to its existence until the 1960’s.

During World War II, scientists began researching biological weapons and then during the Cold War, their priorities changed to researching Chemical Weapons.

Testing carried out on Servicemen

During the chemical and biological testing, servicemen from all over the country were offered payments of approximately £2 and three days leave as an incentive to take part in tests. Very few of the servicemen knew what they were volunteering for.

In reality, nerve gases such as Sarin and CS were used on the 20,000 servicemen who passed through Porton Down. Since this time at least 500 of them have complained of breathing difficulties and kidney complaints. One of the most famous cases involved Ronald Maddison who died as a result of the experiment carried out on him.

Death of Ronald Maddison

At the time of his death in 1953 Ronald Maddison from Consett in County Durham was a 20 year old Royal Air Force Engineer and his family believe that at the time of his death he thought he was taking part in an experiment to find a cure for the common cold.

In fact, Mr Maddison was placed in a gas chamber along with five others and was exposed to the deadly chemical warfare agent, Sarin. Within an hour, Ronald Maddison was dead.

At the time, to protect National Security, Mr Maddison’s father agreed to say that his son’s death was “an unfortunate accident while on duty” and when the inquest was carried out, it was ruled that he had died of asphyxia and that the death was caused by misadventure.

Verdict Quashed by High Court

In 2002, the High Court quashed the verdict of death by misadventure in Mr Maddison’s case and ordered that a new inquest should take place.

In May of 2004, the second inquiry was launched and in November of that year a verdict of unlawful killing was ruled.

The Ministry of Defence were preparing to challenge the verdict; however, have now reached an agreement with the Maddison family that the final verdict should record that Mr Maddison’s death was due to negligence rather than lack of consent on his part.

The final verdict now reads that the unlawful killing was “by reason of gross negligence manslaughter relating to the conduct and planning of the experiment on the deceased”.

Compensation Claims for Victims of Porton Down

The final verdict and admission of negligence by the Ministry of Defence is the first step to allow victims of these experiments to make personal injury claims for compensation.

If you or a member of your family took part in experiments at Porton Down after being misled by the Ministry of Defence, you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

The Claims Line’s Lawyers, Thompsons Solicitors have a specialist team dedicated to dealing with personal injury claims against the MoD from members of the Armed Forces. If you would like free confidential advice, you can reach us on 0800 032 8511 or complete one of our online compensation claim forms.