Phil Beacall
"Ops & Development
Coord"
Membership Level: Full
Posts: 375
Status: Offline | Eight years on, the truth about how MoD bomb expert died
Secrets surrounding the death of a government explosives expert killed in a bomb-making experiment were revealed yesterday.
Father-of-two Terry Jupp died when a counter-terrorism test went wrong on a Ministry of Defence firing range.
Such was the secrecy surrounding his death on the highly classified project that his grieving family has campaigned for eight years to learn the truth about how he died.
When his inquest finally opened yesterday, his family said they had endured an ’unacceptable delay’ and told the hearing they believed he was let down by inadequate safety precautions.
Mr Jupp was a senior scientist at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the same MoD agency which employed Dr David Kelly, the Government weapons expert whose myster ious death prompted the Hutton Inquiry.
The 46-year-old was part of a small team of British and U.S. scientists involved in assessing the destructive capabilities of terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
The experiment attempted to measure the impact of homemade bombs similar to those used by terrorists. As part of the trial, Mr Jupp was told to mix a 22lb explosive charge using highly volatile chemicals at Foulness Island in Shoeburyness, near Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
The chemicals were mixed in a modified cement mixer before being poured into an old paint tin so they could be taken to the firing range.
However, the explosive ignited unexpectedly and Mr Jupp, who worked for the MoD for 25 years, suffered almost 90 per cent burns.
The heat from the explosion, which blew out all the windows of the building in which he was working, was so intense that it melted his hair to his head and charred grass up to 25ft away.
Mr Jupp died six days later on August 20, 2002 when his life support machine was switched off. Det Sgt Paul Easterbrooke, of the MoD police, said: ’He was overwhelmed by a fireball as the mixture spontaneously ignited.’
The MoD police and the Health and Safety Executive investigated the accident, but a subsequent Board of Inquiry report was never made public.
The secrecy surrounding Mr Jupp’s work meant the chemicals involved were not named, but referred to only by letters.
His parents, Roy and Anne Jupp, said they believed lax safety precautions were to blame for his death.
In an emotional statement to the inquest, his widow Pat said his injuries were so severe that she could not say goodbye.
’I could not hold his hand, I could not kiss him and I found I couldn’t even sit there and stroke his face,’ she said.
’I was absolutely devastated at losing the man I loved, the man I had spent 30 years of my life with, but at that time I could only feel angry, mad, and most of all enraged.’
Mrs Jupp, of Hatfield in Hertfordshire, said the death had led to their children Katherine and Matthew, who were 15 and 11, being bullied at school.
The hearing at Southend Coroners Court continues.
Last edited by Phil Beacall | | Report Post |
|
