A special forces soldier has been ordered to pay £5,000 and given a suspended prison sentence after shooting his fellow serviceman seven times.
The unnamed soldier, named by the court as Soldier B, took part in the ‘hostage drill’ exercise in January 2019 when he mistakenly put live ammunition in his gun when he reloaded it in the dark.
Buford Military Court in Wilstshire heard that he ‘experienced’ as a serviceman, but the January exercise was the first time he practised with the elite special forces.
Prosecutor Lt Col Whiting told the court: ‘He failed to properly check the magazine matter before inserting it.’
After putting live ammunition in his weapon, Soldier B fired on Soldier A, who had been ‘guarding’ a room where ‘hostages’ were being held – believing he shot blanks.
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But as Soldier B walked past, he noticed blood burst from Soldier A’s arm, and he began screaming, which many thought was just a part of roleplay, until he said he had been hit.
Soldier A was shot in the chest and arms, suffering life-changing injuries. He was eventually medically discharged from the military.
Lieutenant Colonel Emma Whiting read his witness statement: ‘There is no doubt, if I hadn’t been wearing my body armour, I would have been shot dead.’
‘My injuries have changed my life and will continue to have an impact.’
A later investigation found that Soldier A had actually fired 23 live rounds during the hostage exercise – but only seven caused injury.
In 2021, a ‘distinguished’ army sergeant was shot and killed during a training exercise after being mistaken for a target by a short-sighted soldier, a report has found.
Sergeant Gavin Hillier, 35, of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died at the Castlemartin range in Pembrokeshire on March 4, 2021.
A redacted report found the gunman, referred to as Guardsman 1, had been prescribed glasses but was not wearing them at the time.
They had been in the Army for 18 months at the time of the incident and had previously tried to join the military but were told they were ineligible due to a ‘visual acuity’ (VA).
The guardsman only met the minimum entry standards when wearing specs.
To see the same level of detail as a normally sighted person without lenses, the soldier would need to be three times closer if using both eyes, or six times closer using just their right eye, the report said.
It concluded that on the night of the incident, the shooter ‘was approximately 290 metres from the switch fire target (SFT) where they should have been aiming their rifle’.
It added: ‘Given their uncorrected VA they would have seen this target in the same detail as someone with normal vision would have seen it at 1,740 metres.’
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