Shooting of Prenton soldier by rogue Afghan policeman is ruled unlawful by coroner

May 21 2011

A Wirral soldier shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman was unlawfully killed, a coroner ruled.

David Ridley, coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, recorded the verdict following a four-day inquest in Trowbridge.

Corporal Steven Boote, 22, from Prenton, and four colleagues were gunned down without warning by an officer, known only as Gulbuddin, whom they were living alongside at an Afghan National Police checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali, Helmand Province.

Corporal Boote lost his life alongside Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police, on November 3, 2009.

The soldiers were sitting outside in the courtyard of Checkpoint Blue 25 relaxing, having returned earlier from a patrol.

Their killer, a regular cannabis smoker, walked up to the soldiers and without warning shot them with an automatic AK47 rifle.

The inquest heard harrowing evidence from troops who survived the massacre, describing how the Afghan was screaming as he fired indiscriminately.

Lance Corporal Liam Culverhouse "played dead" after being shot in the face, arms and legs by Gulbuddin.

He said: "All I could hear was gunfire, scream, gunfire, scream, gunfire, scream, and then it all stopped."

The soldier, who was blinded in his right eye, said: "I saw a flash of red out of my uninjured eye and realised I’d been shot.

"At first, I thought it was through a gap in the barbed wire.All I heard was a rifle going off in automatic bursts and Gulbuddin shouting something like a war cry."

One soldier on sentry duty held back from shooting him with a machine gun mounted on an armoured vehicle in case he injured colleagues.

As the troops were off-duty, none were wearing body armour, helmets or carrying weapons.

Post-mortemexaminations found all five died as a result of gunshot wounds and, with the exception of Cpl Webster- Smith, wearing body armour would not have saved them.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders, and some reports suggested Gulbuddin had escaped back to them, but military sources have suggested the attack was probably unconnected to insurgents.

No one knows why Gulbuddin opened fire, killing five and also wounding six troops and two Afghan policemen. He fled the checkpoint and was never caught.

Some soldiers told the inquest that he might have been shot dead in a firefight immediately after the massacre.

Speaking after the inquest, Cpl Boote’s mum and girlfriend spoke of their pridein him paying the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

In a statement, Margaret Boote and Emma Murray said: "We want Steven to be remembered because he was a hero and because he volunteered to fight for his country.

"He fought very hard to get a place on the team in Afghanistan and he was a highly valued and popular member of the Royal Military Police and of the Grenadier Guards Battle Group.

"Steven paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country and he was immensely proud of what he was doing.

"We are immensely proud of him and we miss him desperately, but we know he was committed to the job he was doing."

"The Army, the Royal Military Police and the Royal British Legion have been a huge support for us throughout this harrowing experience.

"We are convinced that the investigation has been thorough and we have had all of our questions answered.

"The only person to blame for Steven’s death is the rogue Afghan National Policeman who committed this cowardly act and we still won’t know what motivated him but we would now like to be left alone to grieve in peace."