§ Mr. HunterTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a further statement on his Department's handling of the case of Major Cory, in the light of the inaccuracies now acknowledged by his Department in the statement made by Mr. James Ramsden in the House on 17 December 1963, with particular reference to the judgment of the court martial appeals court.
§ Mr. FreemanMr. Ramsden made certain omissions in his statement to the House in his account of the internal investigation in 1963 into the trial of Major Cory but these were made in the interests of brevity. Major Cory has also drawn attention to the fact that certain references in the statement were at variance with certain statements in the judgment of the courts-martial appeals court. I wish to make it quite clear that if any statements were made to the House which were open to misinterpretation, or if any facts were omitted, thereby allowing an interpretation to Major Cory's discredit, there was no intention to mislead and the statement made should not be taken to contradict or minimise Major Cory's complete exoneration by the courts-martial appeal court's judgment. Major Cory is innocent of all the charges and an ex gratia payment was made to him in 1963 in respect of this miscarriage of justice. I regret that due to an administrative error by the MOD Major Cory's name was not removed from the records held at the national identification bureau. I can assure my hon. Friend that this has now been rectified.