Date set for inquest into 'nerve gas' death

The coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, David Masters, made the decision at a pre-inquest review yesterday into the case of Ronald Maddison, a 20-year-old RAF engineer from Consett, County Durham.

Mr Maddison died at the Ministry of Defence's Porton Down laboratories, on Salisbury Plain, in May 1953.

Last year, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, quashed the original verdict of misadventure and ordered that a second inquest should be opened into Mr Maddison's death.

The original inquest was held behind closed doors "for reasons of national security", but Mr Maddison's family and others have campaigned for decades for the truth to be revealed.

Mr Masters said the review was to discuss preparatory and administrative issues, including setting an inquest date for what was described by Lord Woolf as "an exceptional case".

Mr Maddison died after he was allegedly given a 200mg dose of sarin nerve gas.

It is said he was among many servicemen and women who believed they were taking part in experiments to find a cure for the common cold, but say they were instead subjected to exposure of CS gas, mustard gas and hallucinogens such as LSD.

Police have investigated the cases of hundreds of people who said they were used as guinea pigs in germ warfare experiments at the chemical and biological defence establishment.

Mr Maddison's inquest is seen as a test case, which lawyers and campaigning families of those affected say could lead to criminal proceedings against those responsible, although some of the senior MoD officials have since died.

Operation Antler, the police investigation to probe illegal experiments at the labs since 1939, has looked at the cases of about 700 servicemen.

Of these, eight have been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service for possible charges to be brought.

A new inquest into Mr Maddison's death is to open on September 30, to be heard by a jury, and is expected to last between six and eight weeks.