JJ_BPK
08-01-2013, 06:12
RIP L/Cpl Ashworth , Vaya con Dios..
An inquest has found that a soldier who won a Victoria Cross for bravery in Afghanistan was unlawfully killed.
L/Cpl James Ashworth 23, of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was fatally injured by his own grenade after he was hit by a Taliban bullet just as he went to throw the explosive device into an compound in June last year.
At L/Cpl Ashworth's inquest today Anne Pember, the Northamptonshire Coroner, said a post mortem had revealed cause of death as blast injuries caused by an explosion.
She recorded a verdict of unlawful killing while he was serving on operations in Afghanistan.
L/Cpl Ashworth died after crawling along being peppered with bullets to throw his last grenade at a sniper who had his team pinned down.
He was attempting to clear Taliban compounds in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand Province.
The citation for the Victoria Cross which he won postumously in March this year said the 6ft 8ins Grenadier guardsman had needed to expose himself to enemy fire to get his grenade away and in doing so he pushed himself into full view.
The inquest at Kettering Magistrates Court heard that there had been a four man Taliban sniper team that had been picking people off that the Nato forces had been desperate to neutralise.
Before he could release the grenade, he was hit in the chest by a round from another sniper.
Disabled from the bullet's blow, which hit his body armour, he was killed when the enabled grenade went off next to him.
continued: (http://news.sky.com/story/1123190/victoria-cross-soldier-was-unlawfully-killed)
An inquest has found that a soldier who won a Victoria Cross for bravery in Afghanistan was unlawfully killed.
L/Cpl James Ashworth 23, of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was fatally injured by his own grenade after he was hit by a Taliban bullet just as he went to throw the explosive device into an compound in June last year.
At L/Cpl Ashworth's inquest today Anne Pember, the Northamptonshire Coroner, said a post mortem had revealed cause of death as blast injuries caused by an explosion.
She recorded a verdict of unlawful killing while he was serving on operations in Afghanistan.
L/Cpl Ashworth died after crawling along being peppered with bullets to throw his last grenade at a sniper who had his team pinned down.
He was attempting to clear Taliban compounds in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand Province.
The citation for the Victoria Cross which he won postumously in March this year said the 6ft 8ins Grenadier guardsman had needed to expose himself to enemy fire to get his grenade away and in doing so he pushed himself into full view.
The inquest at Kettering Magistrates Court heard that there had been a four man Taliban sniper team that had been picking people off that the Nato forces had been desperate to neutralise.
Before he could release the grenade, he was hit in the chest by a round from another sniper.
Disabled from the bullet's blow, which hit his body armour, he was killed when the enabled grenade went off next to him.
continued: (http://news.sky.com/story/1123190/victoria-cross-soldier-was-unlawfully-killed)