New Zealand court allows national blood samples to be used in civil trial.

U police are investigating allegations made by a former Royal Air Force (RAF) serviceman that experiments at Porton Down Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment in which he participated left him with a long-term debilitating illness. Gordon Bell attributes his injuries directly to the experiments, and is reported to have welcomed the Wiltshire Police’s decision to investigate his claims. Bell is also reported to have uncovered evidence of the death of a RAF colleague, 20-year-old Ronald Maddison, on May 6, 1953, during a trial with sarin. It is claimed that Maddison, who had respiratory protection throughout the trial, had 200 mg of sarin dripped onto two layers of clothing on his forearm. In an interview on the BBC’s T o d a y radio programme on Aug 20, the technical director at Porton Down, Rick Hall said that “the death was subject to a coroner’s inquest at the time and also to the court of inquiry by the Ministry of Supply . . . . Although these documents have not been published, the essential details of the death have appeared in the press many times since 1953”.