Army admits 'missed opportunities' to help soldier found dead at Catterick Garrison

• Report by Vicki Smith

The family of a soldier found dead at Britain's biggest military base say he was failed by the army after an internal investigation seen by ITV News revealed there were multiple "missed opportunities" to help him.   

Highlander Nicholas Hart was 33-years-old when he was found unresponsive in his barracks at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire in 2022. He had suffered with mental health problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol abuse for several years.

An inquest has yet to take place, but his family believe he took his own life.

An investigation into Highlander Hart's death, seen by ITV News and called a "service inquiry", makes 41 recommendations and states that the army "must now look to investigate all recent deaths" within his unit from 2018 to 2022.

The inquiry said that, over the course of Highlander Hart's army career, there were "several missed opportunities that significantly hampered the efforts of others to help him".

His wife, Sara, said she was "very angry" reading the report.

"He gave his life to [the army] for 12 years and [they] missed opportunities for him to live," she said.

Highlander Hart, who was originally from the Rhondda in Wales, was enlisted in 2009.

He joined the 5th Batallion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland before joining the 4th Batallion, his regiment at Catterick.

Mrs Hart said: "That was his life, the army. You could tell that it was a purpose for him, that he knew he was good at, that he loved.”

But she said the career her husband loved ultimately failed him after he was denied appropriate support on his return home following two tours of Afghanistan.

"He wouldn’t sleep," she said "He’d never sleep and then it was the drink that would help him sleep and then it was the not eating.

"It was like the routine when he was on tour was taken away from him. He was on edge all the time – that was what you would notice when he was going down at his darkest point, he would blank out from everyone."

She said: "He made it quite obvious that he was sick. And they didn't help him. He really asked for help and he felt like they just shut him down."

On 5 February 2022, Highlander Hart's friends contacted the guardroom at Catterick Garrison concerned for his safety after receiving text messages suggesting he was at risk.

The service inquiry said it was 25 minutes before checks were made.

The report said the delay was due to a number of factors, including that members of the guard "were not familiar" with that part of camp and "had no ground awareness with no mapping or electronic aids".

Among the inquiry's recommendations is that "adequate mapping" be made available to all duty personnel within the guardroom at Richmondshire Lines.

Mrs Hart, who was weeks away from giving birth to their second child when her husband died, said two police officers arrived at her home in Inverness later that day to tell her the news.

She said: "I was pregnant at the time so I [felt] like I can’t break. I can’t. Because I’ve got two children and the baby. So the police just handed me a letter and they said 'there'll be someone with you from the army'.

"It felt so impersonal, I would have thought that an army officer could have come down."

Mrs Hart said she then had to phone her sister-in-law, Jamie Hart-Dobbs, who lives in Wales. She said would "never forget" her screams.

Ms Hart-Dobbs told ITV News: "We entrust our family members to the army, they have these advertising campaigns, ‘we’re a family, we take care of you and your family.’

"Well they didn’t take care of my family. They didn’t take care of my brother. Both me and Sarah and the rest of my family will not move on until we know we’ve done everything we can in his name to ensure the safety of our soldiers."

The inquiry said Highlander Hart's medical notes, including reference to two previous suicide attempts in 2012 and 2014, were "inadequate".

It noted that a nurse had wrongly recorded that he had no history of attempting deliberate self-harm.

It meant it was "difficult for subsequent clinicians to identify" his psychiatric history.

The report also highlighted a "significant shortfall of consultant psychiatrists" resulting in longer waiting lists.

Due to the lack of psychiatrists, at the time of his death, Highlander Hart was five weeks and two days into a seven week waiting list for an appointment.

The family are now working with medical negligence lawyers ahead of his inquest.

They are pushing for an article two inquest, which are held when someone dies in the care of the state, which would give the coroner greater scope to investigate the circumstances.

Ayse Ince, a lawyer at Irwin Mitchell said: "A lot of the recommendations and what they refer to as 'missed opportunities' within the report, were not necessarily a surprise.

"I think that's because Sara and Jamie knew, they understood what was going wrong in the barracks and within Nicki's life at the time. It is still incredibly devastating for them to read in black and white but it was confirming their worst fears.

"I think you start reading the report and think 'ok that's one failing' and you move to another paragraph and there's another. It just comes coming and the failing is over a protracted period of time where Nicki was let down over and over again."

She added: "The report has been open and transparent so we're grateful for that."

An Army spokesperson said: “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies remain with the family and friends of Highlander Nicholas Hart at this sad and difficult time.

“We owe a clear duty of care to our personnel and are urgently reviewing and actioning the 41 recommendations made in the Service Inquiry report.

“We take that duty of care extremely seriously as an organisation and are wholly committed to undertaking the organisational learning which can better enable us to deliver that duty.”

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