The identities of SAS soldiers killed in action may be revealed in future after Hereford coroner David Halpern this week overturned earlier rulings giving members of the Credenhill-based regiment anonymity.
The move calls into question the Ministry of Defence’s policy of trying to withhold the identities of special forces troops killed in action, and requests from families that they should not be revealed. The Hereford coroner had imposed orders banning publication of a Puma crash victims’ names, but lawyers for media groups contested the orders and the MoD said it did not need to have them continued.
Mr Halpern said: “I felt I couldn’t sustain them just for the privacy of the families, much as I would wish to see their privacy respected as much as possible.”
The coroner said he interpreted the MoD’s new stance on allowing the SAS soldiers to be named as a change of policy – although it has not been described as such.
He said: “I think that it is a change of policy, but it was put to me on the basis that they will consider each incident on its merits and particular circumstances.”
Hereford MP Paul Keetch, who said he had asked parliamentary questions about the cause of the Puma crash.
“These sort of details may now come out in a coroner’s inquest, and help to answer, for instance, why our soldiers are flying around in such helicopters as elderly Pumas, when new Chinooks ordered by John Major and paid for by Tony Blair are still unavailable under Gordon Brown,” he added.
