British Army soldier died from ‘catastrophic’ head damage after his gun went off whereas he was ready on sniper firing vary, inquest informed

A ‘well-respected’ soldier and Afghanistan veteran died of a ‘catastrophic’ head injury when his gun was fired unexpectedly during a sniper training course, an inquest heard.

Lance Corporal Joe Spencer, 24, died on November 1, 2016, from a gunshot wound while waiting to go on a sniper firing range in Tain in the Scottish Highlands.

He had been waiting in a metal container to enter the range when an L115A3 sniper rifle fired into the ‘midline’ of his chin and caused a ‘catastrophic injury’ at around 5.41pm.

Coroner Jason Pegg said at the start of the inquest into LCpl Spencer’s death that it had been ‘substantially delayed’ after investigations by Police Scotland and the Sheriff of Grampian, Highland and Islands.

On the night LCpl Spencer died, he was at Tain Air Weapons Range waiting to be called to the firing point, where he and his colleagues were to stand or lie before shooting their weapons.

The soldiers were waiting in an Iso container, a metal box also used as a shipping container.

The coroner said it was a ‘dark’ and ‘cold’ November evening when ‘a round was discharged from a rifle’ and hit the soldier in the head.

He added the inquest’s jury would need to consider whose rifle was fired, where it was, why the round was shot and why there was ammunition in the gun’s chamber.

Lance Corporal Joe Spencer, of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, died aged 24 at RAF Tain in Scotland in November 2016

The coroner said LCpl Spencer was a ‘very capable soldier’ and had been seriously wounded in a grenade attack while serving in Afghanistan 

The jury was also told to consider the safety catch’s position and how ‘the firing pin came to strike the cartridge’.

Mr Pegg said: ‘Was the trigger pulled, was the rifle knocked or was it something else?’

He added the jury would be shown an example L115A3 sniper rifle.

‘You are going to see a very important exhibit, a sniper rifle, because it’s a very important part of this case, we are going to see how it’s operated and how it’s made safe,’ he said.

LCpl Spencer’s post-mortem showed the gunshot entered through the ‘midline of the chin’ and caused a ‘catastrophic injury’ which led to his death.

The soldier, from Hampshire, was the youngest of three brothers and joined the Army in February 2011 at the age of 18, becoming a member of 3rd Battalion The Rifles.

He had served abroad, including in Afghanistan, where he was seriously wounded in a grenade attack.

After 18 months of care, he returned to operational duties and was promoted to Lance Corporal in May 2015.

LCpl had bought his first house with partner Cherycce Connelly months before his death 

Police stood close to RAF Tain, north of Inverness, as they investigated Spencer’s death

He bought his first house with his partner Cherycce Connelly in July 2016.

Mr Pegg said LCpl Spencer had wanted to join the Army ‘since he was a young boy’, adding he ‘excelled in his training phase’ and was awarded ‘best recruit’.

‘He was a very capable young man and a very capable soldier,’ the coroner said.

A December 2024 inquiry by the Sheriffdom of Grampian, Highland and Islands at Tain said the sniper training course was split into three phases across ranges at Barry Buddon near Dundee, Tain in the Highlands and Otterburn in Northumberland.

Sheriff Gary Aitken said LCpl Spencer was standing waiting his turn to take part in an exercise with the butt of his rifle resting on his foot and his chin resting on the barrel when it went off.

He added the soldier’s death was partly due to his ‘utterly inexplicable failure’ to properly unload his rifle following a live fire exercise earlier in the day.

The sheriff said his death could have been avoided if he had not been holding his rifle ‘vertically’ and close to his body when it was fired.

Sheriff Aitken also said if the ‘correct words of command to carry out the unload drill’ had been given, the incident could have been avoided.

The inquest, being heard by a jury of five women and six men, is expected to last two weeks.