Brits lied to soldiers about nuclear testing, court hears

LONDON'S High Court heard evidence that hundreds of British and Australian servicemen were used as guinea pigs to test the effects of nuclear bomb fallout.

THEY were promised "the greatest fireworks show on Earth".

But the High Court in London yesterday heard evidence that hundreds of British and Australian conscripted servicemen were instead used on purpose as human guinea pigs to test the effects of nuclear bomb fallout on the body.

The British military went out of its way to mislead the troops and the Australian Federal Government in order to prevent being sued and angering an ally.

That's the sensational claim the British Government and the Ministry of Defence have fought for five years in High Court wrangling to prevent being said publicly in what is now the biggest class action of its kind.

Up to 1000 servicemen from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji finally had their day in court yesterday to pursue $220 million compensation claim for radiation exposure during a series of atomic and nuclear tests in the 1950s in Maralinga, South Australia, and a number of islands off Western Australia and in the Pacific.

At least 70 veterans and their families crammed into Court 73 in London's Royal Courts of Justice to detail their adverse health and genetic defects and those in generations of their children, from the testing program. Representing them, Ben Browne QC told the court the men were promised a great show then sent into the fallout dust either in aircraft, on ships or as soldiers on the ground.

Many had since died very young, suffered from cancers, skin defects and infertility or suffered from reduced life expectancy.

Former Royal Engineers Lance Corporal James Dunne said yesterday he was young and naive when he was ordered as young soldier to the drop zone after a bomb test.

"There have been a lot of lies . . . we didn't know about radiation, that was science fiction, we did our duty," said the 71-year-old, recently diagnosed with cancer in his nose, anaemic blood and zero sperm count. "I was one of the lucky ones."