Pia Akerman; 24/10/08; (2 Items)
Sixteen years ago, Lance Corporal Nicholas Shiels accidentally shot his mate and comrade Private Adrian Cave, killing the 23-year-old during an exercise at South Australia’s Cultana training base. Cave’s death triggered a tragic chain of events that led to Shiels’s suicide four years later, and yesterday’s announcement by the Rudd Government that it would make an ex gratia payment to Shiels’s family. Soon after the training accident in May 1992, Shiels began displaying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. He suffered insomnia and haunting flashbacks, but his parents say the army never provided individual counselling, only group sessions. Shiels took his own life in 1996. An investigation by Comcare, the commonwealth’s workplace safety regulator, found the army breached 24 occupational health and safety duties in relation to Cave’s death.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24543839-5013404,00.html;
Victory for parents of bullied Australian soldiers
Stuart Rintoul; 24/10/08
The mother of a young soldier found hanged at the Holsworthy barracks in 2003 alleges her son was bullied by soldiers returning from their tour of duty in East Timor because of his Portuguese background and that an officer told members of his unit: “With this wog, you can do whatever you want – won’t be charges taken.” The parents of another soldier who took his life in 2004 also allege that they were bullied and threatened by the army and told that if they spoke about the report into their son’s death they would be committing a federal crime and would go to prison. The allegations surfaced as thefederal Government made ex-gratia payments to the families of four young solidiers who took their own lives after suffering intimidation, bullying, abuse and neglect.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24543838-5013404,00.html