Profile: Andrew Walker

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Andrew Walker was the coroner at ITV reporter Terry Lloyd's inquest

Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker has re-opened an inquest into the deaths of eight British servicemen killed when the US helicopter they were travelling in crashed south of the Kuwaiti border in 2003.

Mr Walker was appointed by Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner on 6 June last year to conduct military inquests. A barrister, he was already qualified to sit as a coroner at a number of courts in London.

In the majority of military deaths, the bodies are flown back to RAF Brize Norton at Carterton, Oxfordshire - and the current conflicts have imposed a serious burden on the courts in that county.

The jurisdiction for the inquest arises where the body lies and once an inquest has been opened it is not possible for it to be transferred.

Mr Walker has previously spoken out at inquests about a number of friendly fire incidents.

'Unforgivable delays'

They included, in November, the inquest of Marine Christopher Maddison, 24, from Scarborough, who was killed by his own side during a river patrol on the Khawr Az Zubayr river in southern Iraq in 2003.

Recording a narrative verdict - which allows the circumstances of a death to be more fully set out - Mr Walker said there were serious failures in the chain of command at a crossing point.

And in December, Mr Walker criticised the MoD over the death of Sgt Steven Roberts, 33, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, also in a friendly fire incident.

He had died because of "unforgivable and inexcusable" delays in providing body armour to troops, Mr Walker said.

He had been ordered to give up his enhanced combat body armour three days before his death, due to shortages, the coroner said.

Unlawful killing

But Mr Walker's most high-profile inquest, back in October of last year, was that of ITN reporter Terry Lloyd, who was shot dead by US forces in southern Iraq in March 2003.

Mr Walker's finding of unlawful killing was the strongest verdict a coroner can record.

He said the troops shot 50-year-old Mr Lloyd in the head while he was in a makeshift ambulance.

Mr Lloyd's interpreter was also killed and his cameraman is missing believed dead following the incident, which took place near Basra.

Mr Walker asked the attorney general to consider pressing charges.

He has also written to the director of public prosecution asking for him to investigate the possibility of bringing charges.

Inquest backlog

Mr Walker is back in the headlines for criticising the MoD's failure to provide a tape of the 2003 death in Iraq by friendly fire of Lance Corporal of Horse Matty Hull, 25, from Berkshire.

The MoD said authorisation from the United States was needed to hand over the video.

Mr Walker's appointment in Oxfordshire last June followed a battle by the county's coroner Mr Gardiner for help with the backlog of inquests of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Just ahead of the appointment of Mr Walker, the government said it would act to clear the backlog - which then stood at 50 inquests.

Extra funds led to the appointment of three assistant deputy coroners including Mr Walker.