A court has ruled that the death of a soldier from Paisley who was shot in the head when on a night-time training exercise was accidental, following an inquest.
In August 2016, Private Conor McPherson was shot through his helmet by another, killing him, heard an inquest Northumberland Coroner’s Court. He was serving with A Company, 3 Scots – The Black Watch – at Otterburn Training Area at the time.
Senior Coroner Andrew Hetherington asked jurors to retire and consider a verdict after five days of evidence, GlasgowLive reports.
Thanking the jury for their service, Mr Hetherington said: “You have undertaken a very serious duty which Conor’s family are grateful. Neil and Betty, as you’d appreciate, found the evidence very difficult to hear.
“They did tell staff in the court they felt they have some closure and are able to move on.”
Jurors previously heard that Private McPherson was pronounced dead at the scene despite resuscitation attempts. Evidence was heard from Doctor Jennifer Bolton, who carried out a post-mortem examination and concluded his cause of death was a head injury.
She said how Private McPherson had one significant injury – a gunshot wound to the right side of the head, with the bullet coming through his helmet. The court was told the injury would have caused him to become instantly unconscious and Private McPherson “would not have been aware of it”.
Private McPherson was one of five soldiers taking part in the exercise at the training ground when a weapon was discharged and he fell to the ground. The court heard it was the first time ‘firer two’, who was believed to have fired the fatal shot, had taken part in a night-time exercise without illumination.
In evidence given by ‘firer two’, the court heard he could not see Private McPherson or the target due to it being “pitch black”. One of the five soldiers told the court he did not fire any shots from his rifle all evening as he could not see anything.
The court heard the targets did not have any thermal tape added to them ahead of the exercise, and Private McPherson was wearing different night vision goggles to the rest of the team. Jurors were also told a Range Action Safety Plan had been carried out ahead of the training exercise, but was sent back because it was not sufficient.
The court was also told a service inquiry report found a number of failings in the lead-up to the training exercise. The findings of the Defence Authority’s Service Inquiry were read out in court, with jurors told Private McPherson was killed in what “should have been a fairly routine live-firing night exercise”.
It was the first night-time Fire Team Attack (FTA) the team had carried out without illumination. The inquiry stated the decision was “probably too rapid”, leading to the platoon feeling unsettled.
A walk-through of the range was not conducted and soldiers who had already completed the range had struggled due to their lack of experience of firing at night – though concerns were not raised at the time, the report said. The court was told the targets did not have thermal tape added to them, and the inquiry said it was “highly likely” Private McPherson was killed by firer two who “mistook him for a target”.
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