Terry’s inquest is postponed

6:03pm Saturday 1st December 2007

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AN INQUEST into the death of York Gulf War veteran Terry Walker has been postponed at the eleventh hour.

The decision by Newcastle Coroner David Mitford to adjourn the hearing - which was originally due to be held next Tuesday - follows pleas by his family for its nature and scope to be extended.

Terry's father Ted, of Wheldrake, said last month he was fighting a new battle for justice for Terry, after discovering that the inquest was only set to examine the failure of a heart transplant operation earlier this year.

Ted wanted it to look as well at the part played by Gulf War Syndrome in his son's death, saying he believed it was the years of ill health and stress which eventually led to Terry needing the operation.

He wanted medical witnesses to be called to speak about his condition.

Mr Walker's lawyer, Mark McGhee, of Linder Myers solicitors in Manchester, said then that he would be writing to the coroner within the next week, asking him to reconsider the nature and scope of the inquest to take into account Terry's military service.

The coroner, who had said in a letter to Ted that he did not feel such issues should properly arise as part of the inquest proceedings, declined to comment to The Press.

The newspaper launched its Justice For Terry campaign in the summer, after revealing that the former Lance Corporal had died aged 48 after a failed heart transplant operation in Newcastle, leaving two children.

Ted and his wife, Hazel, said that while their son died after complications set in following the transplant, they were firmly convinced that his exposure to radiation and inoculations in the Gulf War was the ultimate root cause of his death.

They also believed the stress caused by a "heartless" decision to cut his war pension by 60 per cent last Christmas was another factor behind him suffering a heart attack in the spring, which prompted the transplant surgery.

The newspaper then launched a campaign for Terry's family to receive the full pension to which they were entitled.

Ted said last month that three key Government decisions had together made it a successful campaign - firstly, to restore a percentage of Terry's war pension to help Ted and Hazel raise his bereaved daughter, Kirsty, 13, and secondly, to help fund Terry's funeral and thirdly, to accept that the pension cut was a grave mistake and to issue a formal apology to his family in the House of Lords.

Mr McGhee told The Press that the coroner had agreed to adjourn the inquest to consider the points that he had made.

He said there was still no guarantee that the hearing would look fully at Terry Walker's full medical history.

"But it's a step in the right direction", Mr McGhee said.