Fatal Para mission ‘saved many lives’

Corporal Steven Dunn, 27, could not survive the blast injuries he suffered when the Jackal vehicle in which he was travelling was destroyed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in December.

The communications expert was part of a patrol whose job was to disrupt insurgents based in part of the Bowri desert, Helmand province, where no Allied forces had been for a year.

It was on the second day of a four-day mission aimed at finding enemy bases, talking to locals and gathering information about their hideouts that Cpl Dunn was killed.

At the inquest at Newcastle Civic Centre, Captain Iain McMahon said: “The hierarchy’s terms were that, while it was a horrific loss, the operation itself gained that much information it would have saved many, many lives.”

The intelligence that the mission brought back shaped the way forces operated in the area for months after.

Capt McMahon was in the Jackal with Cpl Dunn, two other soldiers and an interpreter as part of a group following two local vehicles along a dusty track when it was blown up by a bomb probably detonated by a command wire from a nearby compound.

The commanding officer was dazed but escaped with minor injuries. He fought through the dust to find the three others who were alive before finding Cpl Dunn, who was unconscious.

The inquest heard Cpl Dunn, married to Cheryl and father of Emma, died despite efforts to revive him on the ground and while being taken by helicopter back to Camp Bastion.

The proud Newcastle United fan, who lived in North Kenton, Newcastle, died from blast injuries, a post-mortem examination found.

Coroner David Mitford recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.