VETERANS voiced their fury last night after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) settled with the family of a North-East soldier who died when he was deliberately exposed to a deadly nerve agent more than 50 years ago.

Leading Aircraftsman Ronald Maddison, from Consett, County Durham, died aged 20 after having droplets of sarin dabbed on his arm at Porton Down chemical warfare testing facility on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, in 1953.

In November 2004, an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing after a long-running campaign by Mr Maddison's family.

The MoD immediately appealed against the verdict.

But to the dismay of other veterans who underwent experiments at Porton Down, the case was settled yesterday.

The MoD agreed to accept the verdict on the basis that Mr Maddison had died as a result of gross negligence in respect of the conduct and planning of the experiment.

But it successfully argued that the unlawful killing verdict could not imply Mr Maddison had not consented to the experiment or there had been a failure to obtain his consent.

The family's lawyer, Alan Care, said last night that Mr Maddison's sister, Lilias Craik, was "absolutely delighted".

He said: "She suffered a stroke during the inquest, and as a result this is at least a finality.

"She'll be very pleased with that and certainly will be seeking compensation - that is ongoing."

However, the 400-strong Porton Down Veterans Group said the settlement smothered evidence that Mr Maddison never gave his informed consent to the test.

The group's chairman, Eric Gow, objected to the compromise and vowed to fight on.

Mr Gow, who was subjected to LSD and mustard gas experiments, said: "It is simply untrue that there was no evidence before the inquest jury that there was lack of informed consent."

He said there were "weeks and days of evidence" during the inquest that "young servicemen were subjected to dangerous non-therapeutic experiments without being properly informed of the risks - or that the object of the exercise was to discover the boundaries of vulnerability of the human body to dangerous war gasses".

Mr Maddison, an RAF engineer based in Swindon, was one of many volunteers involved in tests carried out between 1939 and 1989.

Lord Justice Richards, sitting with Mr Justice David Clarke, welcomed the settlement as "a responsible compromise".

Winston Churchill's government ordered the initial inquest into Mr Maddison's death, which reached a verdict of misadventure, to be held in secret.

But after years of campaigning by Mr Maddison's family, an inquiry was launched by Wiltshire Police in 1999.