Intelligence

Inquest reopens into Porton Down nerve agent death

Times Online - Newspaper Edition

Steven Shukor



AN RAF engineer who died 50 years ago was unlawfully killed by the government in secret chemical weapon trials, an inquest will be told this week.
Ronald Maddison, 20, from County Durham, volunteered to participate in experiments at the Porton Down military testing centre near Salisbury in May 1953 believing they were to help find a cure for the common cold. He collapsed and died an hour after 200mg of liquid sarin — a deadly nerve agent — was dripped onto his uniform in a gas chamber.

An inquest into Maddison’s death was held in secret in 1953 and recorded a verdict of misadventure. However, last year the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, approved a new hearing, saying the circumstances were of “real public concern”.

The outcome of the inquest is considered crucial by hundreds of Porton Down veterans, who want a public inquiry into a secret testing programme held there between 1948 and 1983.

They have obtained legal aid to challenge a decision this summer by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute those behind the programme, following a four-year police investigation. The veterans claim they were duped into volunteering for the tests which involved a series of chemical agents including mustard gas and hallucinogens such as LSD.

The servicemen were not told what chemicals were being tested on them and many say they were told they were helping to find a cure for the cold.

Official government notices calling for volunteers for the Porton Down experiments in February 1953 stated:

“The physical discomfort resulting from the tests is usually very slight. Tests are carefully planned to avoid the slightest chance of danger.”

The reality, it appears, was different. John Longden, a volunteer, had liquid CS gas dripped into his eye in 1969 after being told it would feel like “soap in the eye” and that there was an antidote. In the event, he was strapped into a chair and held down for an agonising eight minutes. The antidote turned out to be a bucket of cold water thrown in his face.

In another case, Gerald Beech, who took part in a sarin gas test in 1950, said: “We couldn’t see in the daylight for a good 48 hours. Virtually blinded we were and that was just the beginning of my troubles.”

Many of the volunteers, like Beech, complain of long term ill-health, including severe respiratory problems, as a result of the experiments.

In Maddison’s case the tests resulted in his death. There is evidence the scientists knew the risks. A report written on the eve of the test by Dr Harry Cullumbine, head of the physiology section at Porton Down, said: “The object of these experiments has been to discover the dosage of (sarin) which when applied to the clothed or bare skin of men would cause incapacitation or death.” Dr Cullumbine went ahead with the tests although five men had been hospitalised in the previous weeks.

It is understood lawyers acting for the Maddison family will argue that scientists, who are all dead, acted recklessly and unlawfully.

Ken Earl, 69, chairman of the Porton Down Veterans Support Group, said: “It’s imperative that we get a good result here. It may bring on a public inquiry.”

A preliminary hearing takes place on Wednesday.

September 28, 2003 at 10:31 AM in Espionage - general | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home