Porton Down 'guinea pigs' set for £6m

MoD hints at a payout as a study finds it probable that nerve gas tests made servicemen fall ill

The Ministry of Defence is considering offering £6m compensation to hundreds of servicemen after a major study found it 'highly probable' their long-term illnesses were caused by exposure to nerve gas during secret tests at the Porton Down chemical warfare base.

Toxicology test results on the 'human guinea pigs' contradict government-funded research. Their illnesses include memory loss, flashbacks and lethargy.

Professor James Bridges analysed the medical and military records of the hundreds of men involved in the tests, taking account of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors, to explain the problems.

The report will form the basis of a multi-million-pound claim against the ministry. Officials are considering an out-of-court settlement rather than risk full disclosure of sensitive documents detailing one of the most contentious defence policies of the Cold War era.

In addition, papers already released suggest some men at the Wiltshire base - many of them believing they were helping to discover a cure for the common cold - may have received 10 times the amount of toxic chemicals previously thought.

The documents disclose that while government scientists considered tests using the chemical sarin were pointless, the experiments were allowed to continue for another 30 years.

The men's legal case, being finalised by the law firms Leigh Day and Co and Thomson Snell and Passmore, will be submitted in the next few weeks. Compensation is also sought by a number of widows. At least 12 men are believed to have committed suicide following severe depression linked to the exposure to nerve agents and hallucinogenic chemicals.

Central to the case is a demand for an official apology to those affected by the tests which were carried out from the postwar period up to the Eighties. Those involved claim they were misled into taking part in secret Cold War trials on the effect of sarin, which killed 12 people when it was pumped into the Tokyo underground in 1995 by members of a religious cult.

At the time Porton Down scientists wanted to develop nerve gases and defences against them, fearing that the Soviet Union was building up an arsenal of chemical weapons.

Sapna Malik of Leigh Day said she hoped the ministry would do the 'right thing' by settling quickly. 'Having heard the testimonies of hundreds of Porton Down veterans, I consider it simply outrageous that they were treated in such a cavalier fashion,' she said.

'On top of this for years the veterans felt gagged by the Official Secrets Act from telling anyone else, including their doctors, about their experiences. Many of our clients are now in their twilight years and want to see justice done in their lifetimes'.

A number of claimants have spoken for the first time of their experiences. Among them is Michael Reynolds, now 62, who says he is haunted by a recurring nightmare of his skin peeling from his burnt body following a plane crash, an image that has stayed with him since the experiments at the base.

'How could they do this to their own kind?' said Reynolds, from Woking, Surrey. He has suffered a heart transplant, serious skin complaints and osteoporosis which eventually forced him to retire from the RAF.

Another former RAF man, Joseph Kearns, 57, from Glasgow, said he contemplated killing himself after being exposed to tests at Porton Down in the Seventies. 'I know of over a dozen ex-Porton Down guinea pigs that have committed suicide. Where is the justice?'

He describes collapsing after being forced to inhale gas. Liquid was squirted on him that burnt through his skin 'not unlike an acid'. Kearns claims he was made to breath mustard gas and sarin.All this resulted in memory loss that prevented him finding a full-time job.

Adding to the men's anger is the fact that US and Canadian servicemen involved in the tests have received an ex-gratia payment from their countries.

An inquest in 2004 decided that Aircraftman Ronald Maddison, 20, from Consett in County Durham, was killed unlawfully when he died foaming at the mouth after having sarin dripped on to his arm in May 1953. His family was awarded £100,000 compensation earlier this year.