A former Army bomb disposal expert who is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder has reached a six figure settlement with the Ministry of Defence, according to lawyers.
The unnamed former serviceman from Oxfordshire served in the Gulf War, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. He was involved with defusing bombs and dealing with the aftermath of terrorist attacks.
He suffered a breakdown in 2004, and said that he felt that treatment or at least monitoring could have prevented this – and allowed him to remain a valuable asset to the military.
The MoD said the settlement was reached “to the satisfaction of all concerned”.
The ex-soldier underwent psychometric testing in 1998 and 1999 and at the time he was cleared to continue serving on operations by a senior Army psychiatrist. Ironically, he was also asked to appear in a training video about PTSD and its symptoms. He was formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in June 2004 after seeing a civilian consultant psychiatrist.
He was involved in a car accident just two weeks after the diagnosis, and following the accident his symptoms deteriorated to the extent that he had to be medically discharged from the Army and could not return to work.
The ex soldier’s injury solicitors claimed that the failure of the MoD to properly diagnose, monitor and treat the condition left him more vulnerable to stressful events in the future.
The MoD originally tried to argue that he knew about his PTSD after being tested in 1998 and 1999, and it was too late to bring a claim for negligence, but the case was settled out of court for a six-figure sum with liability split 40 per cent to the MoD and 60 per cent to the insurers covering the car accident, lawyers said.
An MoD spokesman said that all compensation claims were considered on the basis of whether or not the Ministry of Defence had a legal liability to pay, and that in cases where legal liability was proved, they would pay out.
The MoD added that it was always looking for new ways to enhance the mental health care facilities for members of the armed forces.
