Liverpool marine 'unlawfully killed' in Iraq

Nov 20 2007

ben nowak

A Liverpool man who died along with three other military personnel when Iraqi insurgents blew up their boat with a remote-controlled bomb was unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled.

Corporal Ben Nowak, 27, of 45 Commando Royal Marines, from Speke, died on the Shatt al-Arab River on November 12 last year when a makeshift explosive mounted on a bridge was detonated as the boat passed underneath.

An inquest in Oxford heard that the deaths may have been avoided if the Royal Marines boat had been equipped with an electronic counter measure (ECM), a device which prevents bombs like this from being detonated.

There were plenty of the kits in theatre at the time but the boat did not have one.

The hearing was also told that the bridge where the bomb was planted was not searched before the boat went underneath - something coroner Andrew Walker said amounted to “a really serious failure to follow basic procedure” by the Royal Marines.

The others who died were Warrant Officer Class 2 Lee Hopkins, 35, of the Royal Corps of Signals, a married father-of-one from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire; Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, of the Intelligence Corps, originally from Ipswich, Suffolk, and Marine Jason “Jay” Hylton, of 539 Assault Squadron Royal Marines, a divorced father-of-two from Burton-on-Trent.