Emails present MoD officers have been advised of Nuked Blood cover-up

EXCLUSIVE: A Mirror investigation has uncovered evidence showing government lawyers were told that troops were irradiated, and compensation cases were at risk

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New emails show that Government lawyers knew that troops were exposed to radioactive fallout, but never admitted it in court.

Senior officials at the Treasury Solicitor’s department were sent a whistleblowing report in November 2014, just three weeks after a judge had ordered fresh hearings.

But the data was never shared with the court. The case failed two years later over “insufficient evidence” that servicemen were exposed.

It comes as campaigners anticipate an announcement in Parliament on Tuesday about the results of a two-year review into missing medical records and human experimentation in what has become known as the Nuked Blood Scandal.

Widow Anna Smith, who was one of those fighting the Ministry of Defence for a war pension, said: “It’s evil. It’s perverting the course of justice. There’s no moral compass.

“We spent years in court, the grief and the burden of it, the solicitors who spent hours fighting on our behalf, and it was a waste of time. And all these people knew. Why didn’t they say?”

Anna’s husband Barry was sent to Christmas Island by the RAF in 1959, to cut the hair of troops involved in decontamination. In the decades that followed the skin on his arms kept itching and shedding, and he got a small payout for “sunburn”.

Then he developed pancreatic cancer, but died before the Ministry of Defence would agree to a hearing. They later rejected Anna’s claim, on the grounds he had never been in a contaminated area.

In March the Mirror revealed how two whistleblowers found evidence of fallout in the main camp at Christmas Island, where the MoD had always denied there was any risk.

It was found in fish, rainwater, seawater and the air after a series of thermonuclear blasts codenamed Operation Grapple.

Emails obtained under Freedom of Information show an early version of their report was sent to a desk officer at the war pensions agency Veterans UK on November 27, 2014. He spotted the official position on ‘zero’ fallout had changed and asked: “Is this of significance with regard to our current defence? Should I be bringing this to the attention of lawyers etc.”

A line manager at the Atomic Weapons Establishment replied that he had “undertaken a review”, and as a result the official denials did “not accurately represent the totality of this original data”. He refuses to discuss it further over email, asking for an in-person meeting.

The email is then forwarded on by the desk officer to his boss, and then senior civil servants in the MoD, including assistant heads of department, medical advisors, and senior policy officers considering war pensions and armed forces compensation.

It is then sent to the Treasury Solicitor’s department “for advice”, with the whistleblowing evidence attached. In all, nine MoD staff had the email.

Less than a month earlier, an appeals judge had allowed the veterans to go back to court, finding that there may be a “reasonable doubt” about fallout. He also urged the government to consider sharing classified records that would establish the truth.

The report was only found after a tip off, and was kept in draft format on an internal server.

Oli Troen of law firm McCue Jury which is acting for the veterans in their fight for justice said: “These documents should have been disclosed during live legal proceedings and the fact they were not is deeply concerning.

“We have reported this matter to Thames Valley Police as we believe it may constitute the offence of perverting the course of justice, and we have urged the Prime Minister to take swift action to investigate it.”

The emails were shown to ministers in March, but no action has been announced.

A MoD spokesman said: “This government is committed to working with veterans and listening to their concerns. The document referred to is an unfinished draft and never finalised. It was not tasked by the AWE or MoD and as such, is not a formal company record.”