Lord Tyler, who took Sergeant Roberts’ family to see Geoff Hoon nearly two years ago to find out why the Secretary of State took his fatal decision, commented:

“The coroner’s verdict on the death of Sergeant Steven Roberts is absolutely clear.  The blame for this unnecessary tragedy lies fair and square with the politicians in London, rather than his commander or colleagues in Iraq.

“The failure to explain the weeks of delay in issuing sufficient body armour suggests either a political mistake or a political misjudgement.

“The inference of the evidence given at the Inquest was that the Secretary of State himself deliberately delayed the order, to try and pretend that Britain wasn’t going to join in the US premature invasion.

“Geoff Hoon still has some explaining to do, and the coroner’s verdict supports Sergeant Roberts’ family in demanding that he come clean now.”

ENDS