SAS selection deaths: Bereaved father tells ITV News he believes 'the system failed' his son

By ITV News correspondent Rupert Evelyn

"The system failed and that's what killed my son," believes David Dunsby.

Whatever decision the coroner reaches over the deaths of three soldiers in the Brecon Beacons in 2013, the father of James Dunsby, one of the men who died, believes the system failed his son

Two years ago today Lance Corporal Edward Maher, Corporal James Dunsby and Lance Corporal Craig Roberts set out on SAS selection. They would never make it home.

David Dunsby has told ITV News that on that day there should have been "somebody there to help them and there wasn't. That system let me down as a father and let my son down".

On 13 July 2013 the heat was stifling, the conditions extreme, and the test was designed to push candidates to the limit. When James Dunsby began to suffer he was not alone and he was not the first to fall.

His father believes that if the exercise called off at the first sign of heat-related illness, then no one would have died.

Instead, he says ,"it could have been a lot more and they [the Ministry of Defence] were lucky, if you can call it luck. They were extremely lucky".

An Army spokesman said: "It would be inappropriate to comment while the Coroner is considering her conclusion which will be delivered on Tuesday 14 July."

David now wants changes to the system.

"Nothing's going to bring James back," he says. "But we need to make sure that there are things in place that will protect all the other soldiers who are going to be doing the same thing.

"The fact is, everything happened so quickly. Like the domino effect, everything just fell over and it got too much.

"They were lucky it wasn't more than just the three. It could have been six or seven."

There is little hope for a father who has lost his son, but he says "we need to make sure that lessons are learned".

"Whether or not they are going to be learned I do not know. You are talking about an establishment here."