A GREIVING mother fighting to prove her soldier son killed himself because of his fear of military police after going AWOL, claims a court martial has proved her right.
After 23-year-old Christopher Young stepped into the path of a train, Army officials told his mother, Heather Haley, that her son had no reason to fear a court martial.
But Mrs Haley says that the court martial of two runaway Army lovers shows why her son was so afraid.
During that case Judge Advocate Edmond Moelwyn-Hughes said: "Going absent without leave is a serious offence."
In June 1995, Christopher, a trooper in the Light Dragoons, died on the East Coast main line at Acklington, Northumberland, 11 months after going AWOL.
His mother and stepfather, Terry Haley, from Ashington, Northumberland, say Christopher sunk into a deep depression which they believe was brought on by atrocities he witnessed in Bosnia.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said yesterday that the judge's comments only related to the case he was presiding over.
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