Herefordshire | Archive | 2007 | March | 28
From the Hereford Times, first published Wednesday 28th Mar 2007.
INCHES made the difference between life and death for a former Hereford soldier blown up by a roadside bomb in Iraq. An inquest today heard how the blast that killed Gavin Emmett was triggered by a pressure pad probably no bigger than a doorbell.
The 29-year-old ex-paratrooper from Three Elms died instantly as the bomb went off. He was working for a private security firm and returning to a base in Baghdad with two colleagues when it did.
Herefordshire Coroner David Halpern ruled that Mr Emmett - who leaves a wife and young son - had been unlawfully killed.
The team was travelling in an armoured Vauxhall Omega car and following the tracks of a American army convoy as it took a designated "safe" road back to Baghdad after an assignment last November.
Team leader Nick Grange, of Blue Heckle Security, said in evidence that one of the car's wheels probably passed over a pressure pad "the size of a doorbell" that set off a bomb buried in the road. The force of the blast ripped through the armoured car killed Mr Emmett who sitting in the back.
"It was complete bad luck. Not necessarily every vehicle would detonate (the bomb)," said Mr Grange.
The two US military vehicles directly in front of the Omega semed to have gone straight over the spot. Kevin Sawyer, a manager with Blue Heckle, told the inquest that with another inch to the left or right his team "may well have got away with it", too.
The inquest heard that the team had taken all the relevant safety precautions for their return. But safe was a "relative term" in Iraq said Mr Sawyer.
Evidence also outlined tributes to Mr Emmett as a "totally professional individual" when it came to his work.
Gavin Emmett served with the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment for six years before joining Blue Hackle. At the time of his death he was actively thinking about re-joining the army and earning a place in the SAS.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008