Solicitor Advocate Patrick McGuire of Thompsons Solicitors has branded the death of a young Scottish soldier in a civil engineering accident in an Iraqi war zone as "one of the worst examples of a complete disregard for health and safety I have seen in my career.”
Thompsons represented Mrs Margaret Valentine who sued the Ministry of Defence after the death of her son Sapper Robert Thompson 22, of the Royal Engineers who was killed when a trench collapsed and buried him alive in the grounds of Basra Palace six years ago.
The judge, Lord Bonomy criticised the Army on Wednesday March 17 as he awarded damages of more than £43,000 to the young soldier’s family.
His tearful mum, Margaret Valentine, 53, heard judge Lord Bonomy declare the Army had been negligent as he announced that she had won her case against the Ministry of Defence.
The judge will give details of his findings against the Army when he issues a written opinion at a later date. For Ms Valentine the decision marked the end of a six year battle to get answers about the accident which killed her son in Basra in January 2004.
An Army inquiry blamed Sapper Thomson from Whitburn, West Lothian, for the accident but Ms Valentine claimed it was "a whitewash."
She refused to accept the military's claim that her son had ignored obvious dangers and gone into the trench to collect a soil sample from the bottom, knowing the walls were not supported.
She believes that, somehow, he fell into the unguarded trench. 
Lord Bonomy attributed 80 per cent responsibility to the Ministry of Defence and 20 per cent to Sapper Thomson. 
But Ms Valentine said: "I am just happy that it has turned out this way. 
"It has taken six years and it was never about the money. Money would never bring him back, supposing they gave me forty million pounds.
"My laddie died a horrific death. He struggled to get out but couldn't. 
"It was about getting here, a judge ruling that there was negligence. It was totally unsafe work and there was no regard for his safety. "I always knew he never entered the trench of his own volition.” 

Solicitor Patrick McGuire, who handled the case for Ms Valentine described the accident as "one of the worst examples of a complete disregard for health and safety I have seen in my career.
“If a commercial company operating in this country had shown such a willful disregard for the safety of their employees they would have faced criminal prosecution, and in my view could well have been the first company to be prosecuted for the new crime of corporate culpable homicide.”
He said there had been both an Army board of inquiry and a coroner's inquest in England. "In Ms Valentine's opinion both were sadly lacking in what they brought out. She thought the board of inquiry was whitewash."
Mr McGuire added: "Finally we have today's decision that the judge believes her son's death was caused by unacceptable failings on the part of the Army. That is what this has always been about for her.
The Court of Session heard that Sapper Thomson died during his fourth tour of duty in Iraq. He was a trained heating and plumbing engineer installing and maintaining showers for military personnel.
But because of manpower shortages he was sent to help a group building a permanent jetty at Basra Palace to replace a floating pontoon there on the Shatt al Arab waterway.
Because of the need to check ground stability another soldier was using a mechanical digger to take out a trench three metres deep and 600mm wide. Every time the soil changed colour they would take a sample to their sergeant.
On one occasion they were told there was not sufficient soil from the bottom of the trench and were sent back to get another sample.
The digger driver saw Sapper Thomson struggling in the bottom of the trench and shouting for help. The side of the trench had collapsed and buried him and rescue attempts failed.
The digger driver saw Sapper Thomson struggling in the bottom of the trench and shouting for help. The side of the trench had collapsed and buried him and rescue attempts failed.
Sapper Thomson had no skill in such projects and the task could not be carried out safely by just two men, they added. There had been no proper "risk assessment" of the work.
The Ministry of Defence agreed it was their policy to apply UK health and safety standards and building site rules wherever they could. But they contested Ms Valentine's claim, insisting that Sapper Thomson's training would have taught him the dangers of trench digging and the possibility of collapse.
They said the accident was his fault for going into the trench and digging with a shovel. ¨Lord Bonomy awarded Ms Valentine of 15 Gardiner Crescent, Whitburn, pounds 42,000 and also ordered the Ministry of Defence to pay pounds 1200 to the soldier's brother, Steven, 20.
