Wirral soldier Corporal Steven Boote was unlawfully killed, rules coroner

May 25 2011 by Matt Hurst, Birkenhead News

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 in the courtyard of Checkpoint Blue 25 relaxing, having returned earlier from a patrol.

Their killer walked up to the soldiers and shot them with an automatic AK47 rifle.

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.”

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-mortem examinations 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.

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.

Cpl Boote’s mum and girlfriend spoke of their pride in 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.

“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 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.”