‘TONY Blair’s responsible for Gordon’s death,’ said Rose Gentle as the inquest opened yesterday into the June 2004 death in Iraq of her son, fusilier Gordon Gentle.
Speaking outside Oxford Coroner’s Court, Rose Gentle added that this was because ‘we should never have entered Iraq in the first place’.
She continued: ‘All those lies about the weapons of mass destruction – Tony Blair knew from 2002 that we were going into Iraq.
‘The only reason we entered Iraq was because we had to fall in with George Bush.
‘It was Blair’s decision not to fall out with America. If America said jump, we said how high.
‘It’s time the government started listening to people in this country and not the government in America.’
Coroner Selina Lynch told Nick Brown, the barrister for the Gentle family that the inquest was not there to examine the way British forces generally conduct themselves in Iraq but to look specifically at the circumstances and death of Gordon Gentle.
Giving evidence yesterday morning was 1st Battalion the Royal Highland Fusiliers commanding officer, Colonel Paul Cartwright.
He was asked about roadside bomb counter-measures, an electronic jamming device, that should have been fitted to Gordon Gentle’s armoured Land Rover, referred to as ‘element B’.
Cartwright said the he has put in an urgent request that the device should be fitted to the battalion’s fleet of Land Rovers.