Soldier shot during training exercises
A soldier who served with a Shropshire-based regiment in Afghanistan died when he was shot during a training exercise in Wales after a target was put in the 'wrong place', an inquest has heard.
Ranger Michael Maguire, 21, died at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff on May 2 after being shot by machine gun fire at the Castlemartin range in Pembrokeshire.
An inquest jury in Cardiff yesterday heard Ranger Maguire, who belonged to the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment based at Tern Hill Barracks near Market Drayton, was in an open area of the training ground where soldiers would usually take lunch or pack equipment when he was hit by a stray bullet.
The fatal shot is believed to have come from a training exercise taking place about 1km away and involving about seven or eight rangers, the inquest heard.
Captain Gary Palmer, a member of the Small Arms School Corps (SASC), told the jury the soldiers were firing at pop-up and 'switch-fire' targets using general purpose machine guns as part their training.
He said a switch-fire target was in the 'wrong place' and the soldiers 'ought to have been firing out to sea'.
The jury was told the fatal shot could have come from other live fire training exercises taking place in other parts of the Pembrokeshire range on the day.
Captain Palmer said about 70 soldiers were using the range for various training operations when the incident occurred.
He used markers and a projector in order to give the jury an overview of what he felt happened on the day Ranger Maguire was shot.
Ranger Maguire joined the 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment, on May 10 2010, and was sent to Afghanistan four months later.
The jury was told the inquest would proceed with a site visit today, but that the remainder of the inquest would then be delayed until at least February 25 2013.
The inquest with a jury of five men and six women, had been scheduled to last three weeks.
