‘No justice’ for Porton Down victims
Service personnel involved in chemical weapons tests at the Porton Down laboratory between 1939 and 1989 have expressed dismay at the CPS’s decision not to pursue a criminal prosecution.
The veterans claim to have been duped into participating in the tests that allegedly resulted in several deaths from nerve agents and other toxic chemicals. It is claimed that they had been asked to participate in lab work to cure the common cold.
Police have been carrying out an investigation into the Wiltshire research centre since 1999 – at an estimated cost of £2m – but the CPS today claimed that there was not enough evidence to take the cases forward.
A decision regarding the final case to be submitted to the CPS is still pending. And an inquest in to the death of Ronald Maddison, who was an RAF volunteer at Porton Down in the 1950s, is due to open later this year.
The Human Volunteer Observer Scheme has been compared by some of the people involved to the Nazi science projects of the 30s and 40s, with one survivor reportedly claiming that the tests were “a disgrace to this country”.
Over 700 members of the armed forces had made allegations to Wiltshire police.
