More than 1,000 atom bomb test veterans, including a Telford man, will this week discover whether the Government has succeeded in its bid to derail their claims for compensation.

The ex-servicemen, their widows and families claim the men were made ill by radiation exposure following nuclear tests in the Pacific and mainland Australia in the 1950s. But the MoD has tried to block the claims.

The claims, if successful, could potentially cost the Ministry of Defence (MoD) hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation payments for a wide range of health problems.

Claimants include Leslie Lund, 73, of Hollinswood.

He says he has suffered breathing problems, blackouts and needed hip replacements since he witnessed the atomic bomb testing in 1956 aboard Royal Navy ship HMS Diana.

Arguing

Earlier this year, the MoD launched a legal bid to halt the claims before they even got off the ground, arguing they were made far too late to go ahead.

And on Friday High Court judge Mr Justice Foskett will give his judgment which will decide whether the men’s claims can go to a full trial.

Douglas Hern, litigation secretary for the British Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association, said the veterans were hoping for a positive outcome on Friday.

Mr Hern, 72, from Moulton, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, served with the Royal Navy on Christmas Island in 1957 to 1958, when he says he was poisoned with radiation.

He said the men had been let down by the Government, having been used as “guinea pigs” for the tests and left without recompense.

“We know we have been messed around all these years,” he said.

“We have been treated with utter contempt – that is the only word.”

During the 15-day hearing in January and February, Mr Charles Gibson QC, MoD barrister, argued that, even if it was deemed they should go ahead at such a late date, the men’s claims had “no reasonable prospect of success”.

But, for the veterans, Mr Benjamin Browne QC said recent research made a clear link between radiation exposure and illnesses suffered and it was only when that became available that the claims could have gone ahead.