Gulf war mine victim wins pounds 1m

A former soldier who was blinded and lost a leg clearing Gulf war mines without any safety equipment yesterday won a compensation case estimated to be worth more than pounds 1m.

The case opens the way for several more against Royal Ordnance, a subsidiary of British Aerospace, which had won a pounds 60m contract from Kuwaiti to clear minefields laid by retreating Iraqis. Of the 110 people employed in clearing the mines, eight were killed and at least 13 seriously injured.

Paul Jefferson, 39, was blown up in Kuwait in 1991. Royal Ordnance had told Mr Jefferson, a former Royal Engineers, captain, he "could get on the next plane home" if he refused to work without safety equipment, the High Court heard.

His compensation claim was halted yesterday after Royal Ordnance agreed to pay 75 per cent of his damages, with costs estimated at pounds 500,000. Damages were estimated to be "substantially above pounds 1m".

"As a soldier I expected to be expendable but I never expected to be expendable for profit," he said yesterday. Mr Jefferson, who was also lost a finger in the accident, said he would use some of the money for treatment. "But this is not a sob story. It is a moral victory against Royal Ordnance." His barrister, Andrew Hogarth, had told the court: "Had he been wearing protective goggles, he would have kept his sight."

No equipment or protective clothing was provided for the Royal Ordnance employees in the Gulf, Mr Hogarth said. Mr Jefferson and three other team members had been forced to try to dispose of Iraqi mines by attempting to set fire to them using makeshift apparatus including petrol in a Coca- Cola can. The unit was also expected to "scavenge" for equipment left by retreating enemy forces.

On one such operation, Mr Jefferson entered a mines dump, where he trod on a mine. The unit's first-aid equipment comprised "a few plasters and some aspirin" and it was three days before he was flown to Britain for treatment.

William Norris, for the defence, had argued that Mr Jefferson was a "cavalier operator" who took unnecessary risks. On Monday, the defence produced a picture of Mr Jefferson on a "minefield" in Afghanistan wearing no protective clothing. But this turned out to be a publicity photograph for a humanitarian organisation he had worked for, teaching local people to recognise and deal with mines. The photograph was posed "on a perfectly safe piece of road," he said.

Mr Jefferson said there had never been an accident on any of the previous mine-clearance missions he had been on, including work in Angola, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan.

St Dunstans, a charitable organisation which works with blind people injured "in the course of their duty for the nation", contributed to Mr Jefferson's legal costs.

Before the Kuwait accident, Mr Jefferson had worked for three years as a freelance mine-disposal expert, earning about pounds 60,000 a year. "It wasn't for the danger," he said yesterday. "It was something I was good at and I found it a satisfying occupation in problem-solving."