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Daily Mirror
28-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Veterans to see Nuked Blood evidence at last, but it will take 4 years to read
Evidence about Nuked Blood experiments on troops is to be made available to veterans at last, but there is so much of it that it will take four years to read through 'Lab rat' veterans used in government radiation experiments have been told they can finally see hidden documents about the programme - but it will take more than four YEARS to read them all. A top secret database about troops used in nuclear weapons tests is set to be declassified, but it is so vast that campaigners fear almost every veteran will be dead by the time it has been read. Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: "The average age of our veterans is now 86 and we hear of another one dying without justice almost every week. To tell those men they can only get the answers they've waited seven decades for it they manage to hang on a bit longer is morally abhorrent. "The government knows what's in those files: the Prime Minister should simply admit it to Parliament." The database, codenamed Merlin, was created in 2007 to hold records for a legal claim brought by veterans and widows. After the case failed, it was classified on the grounds it held information that it could proliferate nuclear weapons and aid terrorists. In 2023 the Mirror exposed that in fact that it included documents about a long-denied mass blood testing programme on troops. Such biological monitoring could provide the first irrefutable evidence of what amounts to human experiments - showing whether radiation entered the men's bodies, while scientists took note of the effects. Many veterans have subsequently found the results of the tests are missing from their medical records, and the misuse of security classifications is now the subject of a criminal allegations to police about misconduct in public office by staff of the MoD and AWE. * You can donate to the veteran's search for justice HERE A handful of the Merlin files were released last year and featured in a BBC documentary about the Nuked Blood scandal. Ministry of Defence officials have now confirmed to campaigners the entire database will be published, for free, and made available online. But the 28,000 files are estimated to include more than 700,000 pages. If veterans were able to review 500 pages a day, it would still take 1,465 days, or more than 4 years, to get through them all. Oli Troen of law firm McCue Jury which is helping veterans to sue the MoD said: "It is no surprise that, when the MoD finally releases the evidence it has kept under lock and key until now, it tells them to figure it out for themselves. "The MoD knows damn well what's in those files, and how important they are to the veterans and their families. The Prime Minister and Defence Secretary must treat these heroes with more respect and engage with them properly, not least to avoid what will otherwise be a costly and protracted legal battle that will shame this government." The lawsuit, which is expected to be issued soon, seeks to force the MoD to produce the results of the monitoring programme. The Merlin records are expected to be made available via the National Archives at Kew, but there is no timeframe for them to go online. A spokesman for the archive confirmed the records would be free to access and available for digital download, but they had not yet been provided by the MoD.
Daily Mirror
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
EXCLUSIVE: How MoD officials blocked evidence of Nuked Blood cover-up
Senior civil servants blocked the release of records that showed nuclear hero's medical data had been tampered with Ministry of Defence officials blocked a minister from publishing evidence of wrongdoing in the Nuked Blood Scandal. Emails obtained by the Mirror show civil servants unlawfully withholding the full truth from the family of a nuclear veteran 'lab rat' used in Cold War radiation experiments. Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: 'Either the officials don't know what they're doing, or they intentionally misled a minister of the Crown to authorise an unlawful act. "In either event we believe this is a criminal offence in which state employees have knowingly, or at best recklessly, broken the law. Keir Starmer is their boss, and as a former head of the Crown Prosecution Service he must act on this.' Group Captain Terry Gledhill had been medically monitored while leading squadrons of 'sniff' planes on sampling missions through the mushroom clouds of Operation Grapple at Christmas Island in 1958. It was revealed in a top secret memo sent between Atomic Weapons Establishment scientists discussing the 'gross irregularity' in his blood tests. When his horrified daughter Jane O'Connor asked to see his personnel file, she was refused. A judge later ruled that as his executor, she had a legal right to it. The memo, some of the blood tests, and 14 months of records were found to be missing from the file. It also showed Terry was given unexplained chest x-rays after his return, and was having 'routine' checks on his blood 11 years later. Following Jane's win, the Mirror made a Freedom of Information request to see the advice given by officials who had refused her access. After an 11-month battle, a dozen pages of redacted emails have been released, and show officials repeatedly misled then-defence minister Andrew Murrison. In June 2022, a squadron leader from the RAF medical archive told the MoD that Jane had no right to access the records. Six months later, after Jane asked to see the advice and told them she was executor, the emails show deputy heads of department agreeing she could not have it, and asking the minister to rubber-stamp it. A senior civil servant team leader claimed: 'Releasing this information for public consumption would expose officials to public rebuke and, therefore, more likely to react defensively to criticism making it harder to achieve the most effective outcomes.' But guidance from the Information Commissioner states: 'The threat of future disclosure could actually lead to better quality advice.' They also told the minister there was 'no media interest' and 'no direct financial implications', even though Terry's blood tests had been subject of extensive coverage three months earlier, and withholding medical records can make organisations liable for damages. The emails show Mr Murrison questioned 'the validity of the actual advice we wish to withhold'. Senior civil servants then agreed the wording of an email to send him and the rest of the frontbench ministerial team, falsely claiming 'there is no legal obligation' to provide the records to Jane. She said: 'If they had just published when I first asked, we would have known three years ago what happened to my dad. Because they fought it, there are now half a dozen senior civil servants involved in what sounds like a cover-up. He would be devastated to know this is how the country he served was treating him and his crews, after all they did for us.' A source close to Mr Murrison said he had been 'very keen to release as much as possible' on a range of topics while in office, and had taken officials' advice at face value. He was no longer in a position to check if they had been in the wrong, said the source. Civil servants blocked the Mirror's request for the emails for nearly a year, claiming a change of government made a difference to the FOI laws, and that new ministers were not allowed to see what previous ministers had been told. They even sought help from the Cabinet Office and Attorney General, before finally releasing some of them with redactions. 'We would like to offer our sincere apologies for the length of time taken to provide you with a response which has been due to the complexity of the request and the need for serval government departments to liaise in order to ensure that your request is considered robustly,' the MoD told the Mirror. Asked about the contents of the emails, a spokesman said: 'The government is committed to being open and transparent and takes its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously. 'We have accepted the FOI Tribunal's ruling and provided the requested records to the family. We have reviewed our internal guidance and processes to ensure they fully align with ICO requirements and that ministerial decisions on disclosure are properly supported with accurate and complete information.'
