The Allbutts had issued judicial review proceedings against the Ministry of Defence in 2008 for its failure to take disciplinary action against the then Major McDuff (now Lieutenant Colonel McDuff) for his role in the circumstances which led to the tragic death of their father Corporal Stephen Allbutt in Iraq in March 2003 in a so-called “friendly fire” incident.
The Coroner who investigated the death of Corporal Allbutt found he had lost his life in an incident that was “completely avoidable”. The Coroner found Corporal Allbutt had died from multiple injuries when his tank was fired at and hit by a tank that formed part of an adjacent British platoon. The Coroner found the adjacent platoon had not known the location of Corporal Allbutt’s tank because it had not been given crucial information concerning the area of operation set for Corporal Allbutt’s tank, or even the fact that it was there. This was information the Coroner found Major McDuff should have passed on, and which, despite Major McDuff’s evidence to the contrary, the Coroner was not convinced he had done.
Despite this verdict, the Ministry of Defence refused to take any action against Major McDuff, whether criminal or disciplinary.
The difficult decision to withdraw their proceedings was taken after the Ministry of Defence disclosed very late evidence to Leigh Day & Co about its decision-making process. This evidence revealed the Army had taken steps which it had not previously disclosed about its decision making process and on this basis Leigh Day advised the Allbutts they should not continue to a substantive hearing. The army was ordered to pay £2500 towards the costs wasted by this late disclosure.
Richard Stein, the partner instructed by the Allbutts said:
“This is a very disappointing result. We continue to have grave doubts about the extent to which the Army had a genuinely open mind when determining whether administrative or disciplinary action should have been taken against Major McDuff. However, the late evidence disclosed by the Army suggests the procedure by which they reached this decision was more thorough than previously suggested and for this reason we have reluctantly advised the Allbutts to withdrawn their claim.
It is clearly highly unsatisfactory that it has taken legal proceedings for the Army to provide the Allbutts with full details about what exact steps it took to decide whether to take action against Major McDuff and we hope the Army will learn from this case and ensure such failures do not happen again.
It is clearly crucial that those who have lost loved ones while serving their country are properly informed about the circumstances in which their relatives died and reassurance that the Army will learn from their mistakes and ensure they do not happen again.
We can confirm this decision has no effect on the Allbutts’ private claim which continues to proceed.” Sapna Malik, the partner instructed on the Allbutts’ private law claim for damages said as follows:
“Now that the judicial review proceedings have come to an end, we will be pushing ahead with the damages claims on behalf of Deborah, her two children and the two servicemen badly injured in this tragic incident. At the Inquest, the Coroner raised significant concerns about the adequacy of the equipment provided to the troops involved, as well as the serious failings of Major McDuff on the ground, and both these lines of argument will be followed up with the MoD.“
Leigh Day & Co and the Allbutt family wish to thank the Legal Services Commission for their support of the case, without which the family would not have been able to bring judicial review proceedings and obtain the information they have about the steps taken by the Army following Corporal Allbutt’s death.
Deborah Allbutt has requested that all media enquiries about these matters be directed through Leigh Day & Co. Please contact
Rosa Curling or
Nisha Patel on 020 7650 1200 in respect of the judicial review claim and
Sapna Malik on 020 7650 1222 in respect of the damages claim.
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