Afghan unlawfully killed soldiers

Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith (pictured) and four colleagues were killed by a rogue Afghan policeman in Helmand Province

Published: 2:12pm, 20th May 2011
Updated: 4:11am, 21st May 2011

Five British soldiers shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman were unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled.

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

The troops were gunned down without warning by an officer, known only as Gulbuddin, alongside whom they had been living at an Afghan National Police (ANP) checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali, Helmand Province.

Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, 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 that day from a patrol.

Their killer, a regular cannabis smoker, walked up to the soldiers and without warning shot them with an automatic AK47 rifle. He later fled the checkpoint and has never been caught.

The inquest heard harrowing evidence from troops who survived the massacre, describing how the Afghan had been screaming as he indiscriminately fired. Lance Corporal Liam Culverhouse "played dead" after being shot in the face, arms and legs by Gulbuddin.

"All I could hear was gunfire, scream, gunfire, scream, gunfire, scream, and then it all stopped," L/Cpl Culverhouse said. The soldier, who was blinded in his right eye, added : "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 that was like a war cry."

Speaking after the inquest, the mother and girlfriend of Cpl Boote spoke of their pride in him paying the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

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