Victims Commissioner demands police investigate Nuked Blood cover-up
Police and the Ministry of Defence have been urged by the Victims Commissioner to investigate allegations of a criminal cover-up at the heart of the British state.
It comes in a week when the government is already under pressure over its failures to make proper amends for institutional injustices, including the Post Office and infected blood scandals, which lasted decades.
Now Baroness Newlove - widow of murdered headteacher Garry Newlove - has intervened in the Nuked Blood Scandal, in which thousands of UK and Commonwealth troops were biologically monitored, without consent, during nuclear weapon trials in the Cold War.
Many have found the results of blood and urine tests, and chest x-rays, have subsequently been removed from their medical files, along with doctors' notes taken during service at the trials. The MoD is facing a £5bn lawsuit forcing it to produce the records or pay compensation.
A 500-page dossier of evidence of alleged criminal misconduct in public office from the Mirror's 3-year investigation was handed to the Met Police in May, but although much of it pointed to the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, it declined to investigate. It passed the complaint to Thames Valley Police, as much of the evidence of blood testing was found hidden behind national security at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire.
Campaigners wrote to Baroness Newlove concerned the allegations were "not being properly or speedily investigated by the appropriate police force".
* You can support the veterans' fight for justice HERE
Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: "The MoD is next door to Scotland Yad, and therefore these offences span both jurisdictions. It is our view that after reviewing the evidence, TVP will simply refer it back to the Met, and there will be a game of official ping-pong while these veterans of these tests, who have an average age of 87 and more than 9 chronic health conditions each, die at the rate of one a week."
He added: "We appreciate it's a very unwelcome complaint with many political ramifications, but it is a vital one if our country is to remain a place of justice and freedom, if our veterans are to get the correct medical diagnosis and treatment, and our future troops can have full faith in the duty of care displayed by those in charge of the armed forces."
Baroness Newlove's role includes championing the victims and witnesses of crime, and campaigners asked her, as well as Policing Minister Diana Johnson and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, to ensure the case was being properly dealt with.
In a letter to veterans, she said the allegations were "very serious issues" that had "impacted on the health and wellbeing of victims and their families".
READ MORE: Nuked Blood: Post Office victims and Hillsborough survivors join veterans to urge Met investigation
Baroness Newlove added: "I have written to the Secretary of State for Defence, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.
"In my letters to them I have highlighted the concerns you have raised and have asked that the matter be investigated as quickly as possible in order for justice to be served.... I hope that you and those affected are able to find swift resolution."
This afternoon the infected blood public inquiry is to publish a damning report into "devastating" compensation delays to victims of AIDS and hepatitis-infected transfusions in the worst scandal in NHS history. Yesterday, a similar report in to handling of the Post Office scandal found that at least 13 suicides could be attributed to wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters and postmistresses, based on faulty computer systems.
This week, Parliament was told that a six-month MoD internal review of records about the monitoring programme - which has already lasted 10 months - has finally started looking at individual records of military personnel to establish what is missing.
Veterans Minister Al Carns said: "Our focus has been to start reviewing all surviving policy records and instructions related to blood and urine testing, as well as policies relating to the retention of these records. We have begun with the policy files to ensure there is an understanding of the policy procedures and instructions for medical tests that were given at the time.
"Doing this first helps us to understand whether policies and instructions were followed. The MoD has begun the process of looking at nuclear test veterans' service and medical records. I will update the house when I am in a position to share the findings of this exercise."
He has also confirmed that the review is not independent, with the historic branches of the RAF, Royal Navy, and Army, and the AWE, each reviewing their own records to see if they hold what they have previously denied holding. There is no date by which veterans have been told they can expect an answer.
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"Not that you ever really get closure after you lose a loved one, but at least it gives us the opportunity to know more around the circumstances of that crash and why all those men and women boarded that flight. "We'll keep pushing very, very hard until we get the truth." The Chinook Justice Campaign has launched an online petition that has already seen more than 25,000 signatures.
