A SOLDIER traumatised by atrocities he had seen in Afghanistan lay dead in his room for up to six days after taking his own life at Catterick Garrison an inquest has heard.

Lance Corporal Ryan Mackenzie, 30, who served with 4Scots had been desperate to join the Army at 18 after a traumatic childhood when he had been rejected by his mother.

He did his first tour of Afghanistan in 2011 and told his aunt Angela Mackenzie he saw many atrocities.

In a statement, she said: “He was never the same after that he couldn’t stand loud noises.”

LCpl Mackenzie served another tour in Afghanistan from October 2013 to May 2014. Ms Mackenzie said he married and had a daughter, but the marriage was acrimonious and broke up.

His daughter was diagnosed with a chronic illness but he was devoted to her. She said he was devastated in July 2021 when there was a call to the barracks to say that his daughter had died – which turned out to be untrue.

Ms Mackenzie said there had been several attempts by her nephew to take his own life.

On August 18 last year friends alerted Catterick Garrison that they could not get in touch with him and he was found in his room at the barracks on August 23.

“We were shocked how could they not know how long he was left in the room,” said Ms Mackenzie.

“He didn’t want to go back to Catterick, it was killing him being there,”

LCpl Mackenzie’s grandmother, Margaret Allison, said his family had noticed a difference in him after his tours of Afghanistan.

She said he told her people were being interrogated and it wasn’t being done right and children with suicide vests on had been shot.

His grandmother Margaret Allison told the inquest: “The deployment messed him up, he had PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and made two suicide attempts.”

But the Army unit welfare officer Capt Phil Ingram said LCpl Mackenzie’s death had come out of the blue – they had not been told of any attempts by him to take his own life and he had not been diagnosed with PTSD.

They knew he was unhappy in the job and felt isolated in the single unit accommodation at Catterick Garrison.

He said a Care Action Plan had been opened for him in May 2021 after a colleague reported he had expressed suicidal thoughts.

Capt Ingram said there were several reviews and Mr Mackenzie was quite clear he wouldn’t do anything to take his life because he wanted to be there for his daughter.

He spoke to LCpl Mackenzie at midnight on August 13 when he thought he had been drinking. When told he had been found dead he said: “It was completely unexpected. Once we worked out his daughter was not dead his mood picked up. It was completely out of the blue. “ Lt Col Alasdair Hempenstall, Commanding Officer of 4Scots said in 2011 when LCpl Mackenzie was on his first tour of Afghanistan there had been an incident the death of a soldier who had gone missing who was caught by the Taliban and there was evidence that he was tortured.

“That incident would have had a big impact on anyone in that location,” he said.

He told the inquest in Northallerton that comings and goings in the barracks were difficult to enforce, although a new electronic QR system had been brought in just before LCpl Mackenzie’s death.

He added: “It is difficult to keep track of our soldiers, they are adults, it is their home, we try and afford them as much liberty as we can.”

He added that the army was not made aware of information that he had tried to take his own life.

Assistant North Yorkshire Coroner Jonathan Leach said during none of the interactions after the start of the care action plan was there a concern of suicide.

He said when LCpl Mackenzie came back to Catterick was unclear but the last contact had been on August 17.

He recorded a verdict of suicide.