Inquest hears how York war hero Matthew Hatton was killed by Taliban’s ‘new bomb’ (From York Press)

Inquest hears how York war hero Matthew Hatton was killed by Taliban’s ‘new bomb’

11:00am Saturday 5th June 2010 in

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A WAR hero from York was killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan after the metal detector he was using failed to spot the deadly device.

An inquest yesterday into the death of Lance Bombardier Matthew Hatton heard a night-time operation in the Sangin area of Helmand province ended in tragedy, as comrades of the wounded 23-year-old from Haxby tried to pull him to safety.

The inquest, at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, heard that increasingly sophisticated Taliban explosives had gone undetected by the British equipment, and that new detectors had since been rushed into production.

The three soldiers were searching a mosque for bomb-making kits on August 13 last year, when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off at the bottom of a flight of stairs as L Bombardier Hatton, of 40th Regiment Royal Artillery, left a compound near the building.

He had already swept the area using a Vallon metal detector which did not detect the bomb, and was being helped by Captain Mark Hale, 42, and 19-year-old Rifleman Daniel Wild when a second device detonated, killing all three.

More than 1,000 people gathered at York Minster last September for L Bombardier Hatton’s funeral, where the former Oaken Grove Primary and Easingwold School pupil was described as “the perfect soldier”.

Major Karl Hickson, who commanded the operation in the run-up to Afghanistan’s summer elections, told yesterday’s inquest that IEDs had become increasingly complex and contained fewer detectable components.

He said: “As the tour progressed, the scale and sophistication [of the devices] increased.”

Rifleman Ricky Edgar, who witnessed both blasts, said he was asked to grab a metal detector and search for casualties after the second blast.

He said: “Everybody was in shock, everybody hesitated and I had to decide what to do.”

Corporal Adam Newton, who led the section L Bombardier Hatton was attached to, said: “I was just off the stairs when the first blast went off.

“I turned around and saw a massive dust cloud and I heard a couple of people screaming. I knew then we had casualties.”

Wiltshire and Swindon coroner David Ridley recorded verdicts of unlawful killing on all three men because their deaths were at the hands of insurgents, and said the Ministry of Defence was “trying to improve the equipment given to those serving out there to help their survivability”.

He said: “Both devices due to their construction had been designed to minimalise detection by devices such as Vallon.”

Pressures of bomb disposal team

BRITAIN’S top bomb disposal officer resigned last month, citing the pressures his team faced in Afghanistan.

Colonel Bob Seddon stood down from his role as principal ammunition technical officer of the Royal Logistic Corps.

He said he needed more people on the ground and voiced concerns over the job’s psychological impact.

He said the army wanted to bring more people into disposal teams to tackle improvised explosive devices, but said the measures would take “some time”.

The Army also changed policy so troops can detonate unexploded IEDs remotely. Previously, they have been dismantled, to help gather forensic information, but the policy was changed due to the number of devices in Helmand.

Metal detector’s ‘success’

A SPOKESMAN for the Ministry of Defence said: “The Vallon hand-held metal detector has been successfully used in Afghanistan to find innumerable IEDs and has saved countless lives.

“As we have learned more about the threat, we have improved our detection capability for all personnel, who use excellent equipment for this task.

“Protection to our troops in Afghanistan against IEDs is not just provided by equipment, but also by the tactics, techniques and procedures used to enable them to avoid and detect mines and IEDs.”