Cyprus inquest of British Army officer delayed for fourth time

Colour Sergeant Anthony Oxley, who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was on deployment in June 2016 when he was involved in the crash at the RAF Akrotiri base.

The 40-year-old, from Ryhill, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was riding a motorbike when he collided with a Toyota Corolla driven by a US serviceman and later died at a Cypriot hospital.

An inquest into his death was due to begin on the island on Thursday after last being adjourned in June, but was postponed again due to paperwork delays.

A judge at Nicosia District Court said it would now be heard on Monday.

CSgt Oxley’s widow Sally told the PA news agency: “We think, fingers crossed, it is going to conclude on Monday, but it’s just the stress that goes along with it.

“Being out here again, having to juggle my whole life around a lack of organisation.”

A 2018 inquest in the UK recorded a narrative verdict, that CSgt Oxley’s death had been caused by multiple blunt force injuries to his head, as a result of a road traffic collision.

But Mrs Oxley, who lives in Barnsley, has been pushing for a new inquest in Cyprus to look into witness accounts of his death.

Mrs Oxley previously said she had been left in the dark about the details of how her husband died.

KRW Law, which represents Mrs Oxley, said the US Air Force took charge of the investigation and few details were made public, even though CSgt Oxley’s death happened within British sovereign territory.

Mrs Oxley, 45, told PA that she was told during a meeting with a US general that the US serviceman involved in the accident would face no charges and that was “the end of the matter”.

She said she had been left with “many unanswered questions”.

Christopher Stanley, of KRW Law, said there were discrepancies in the evidence between witnesses and a new inquest was “in the interests of justice”.