A freelance journalist who was shot in the back of the head in Iraq was unlawfully killed, an inquest heard yesterday.
Richard Wild, a 24-year-old former soldier from Melrose, Roxburghshire, died on July 5, 2003, after just two weeks in the country covering the aftermath of the war.
He was leaving the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad when he was killed by a gunman.
His family said after his death that they had tried to persuade him not to go to Iraq as a freelance journalist but he wanted to establish himself as a war correspondent. After his death, Mr Wild's body was flown back to the UK by the RAF, and landed at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
Oxfordshire deputy assistant coroner Andrew Walker, sitting at Oxford Coroner's Court yesterday, heard that the American military were not, at that time, investigating civilian deaths so little evidence about the murder existed.
His father, Robin, previously claimed his son's death was not properly investigated and his family had been given conflicting information.
Mr Wild said, officials at first told the family his son had been killed after being surrounded by an angry mob.
But he later told a newspaper he had discovered "he was killed by a man who had waited in his car in the university car park until Richard came out from his appointment with the director of the museum".
ITN said then that the channel was "shocked and saddened" at his death, saying: "In the six months that Richard worked at ITN, he was regarded as a dedicated and popular member of the newsroom team, particularly as he tracked all the material coming into ITN during the Iraq war."
Mr Wild grew up near Melrose. After school he became a lieutenant in the King's Regiment for a year, then went to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read history, and studied for an MPhil in medieval history.
About 500 people, including Mr Wild's parents, Robin and Daphne, and his sisters, Alison and Rosemary, attended his funeral service at Melrose Palace Church.
The service had to be moved from the smaller St Boswells Parish Church to accommodate the large number of family and friends who wanted to attend.
The Rev Bruce Neill said Mr Wild's life had been "a catalogue of achievements" in the sporting, academic, musical and professional fields.
The family had urged him not to go to Iraq, but Mr Neill said no-one should now have any regrets he had decided to make the dangerous journey.
Mr Wild's sister Alison Curtis said in 2005 she had named her new baby son Alexander Richard Brooke Curtis, in memory of her brother.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article