Family Takes Battle For Justice To Court Following Nimrod Tragedy

The family of a young victim who lost his life during the Nimrod disaster in 2006 are to continue their battle for justice at the Court of Session in Edinburgh this week, their lawyers confirmed.

Law firm Irwin Mitchell’s specialist armed forces team represented all 14 families at the Inquest into the tragedy and today confirmed that they will be representing the Mr Robert Dicketts and Mrs Priscilla Dicketts, the parents of Oliver Dicketts in a civil jury trial  starting on November 2nd.

Following the inquest in 2008 the Coroner, Andrew Walker, handed down a narrative verdict which concluded that the aircraft had "never been airworthy from the first time it was released to the service nearly 40 years ago".

The MoD was further criticized following the independent review of the Nimrod fleet by Mr Haddon–Cave QC in 2009. The report from the review accused the MoD of sacrificing safety to cut costs and that the Nimrod accident occurred because of a "systemic breach" of the military covenant.

David Bell from Irwin Mitchell’s Armed Forces Accident Team is based at the firm’s Glasgow office. He said: “I can confirm that we are representing the family of Oliver Dicketts who died during the 2006 Nimrod tragedy. While liability has been admitted by the MoD, the level of compensation to be paid to the family remains in dispute.