Investigation into soldier death finds MOD broke health and safety rules

An investigation into the death of a Shropshire soldier has found the Ministry of Defence broke health and safety rules.

21-year-old Fusilier Dean Griffiths died at the Lydd ranges training camp in Kent in 2011 after being shot in the neck.

The soldier, from Market Drayton, was serving with the 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh when the incident happened.

The exercise involved troops approaching a specially built compound that had been created to simulate the type of building the troops would encounter in Afghanistan.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) can't prosecute the MOD, but issued its highest sanction.

The HSE said there was an assault group to enter and secure the compound and a fire support group to provide cover:

The HSE said its investigation found it was usual practice on site that unused targets were laid on the floor to give the appearance of debris, but on this occasion an unused target had been stood up in the wrong place: