Relatives of three men who collapsed and died during an SAS test march in searing temperatures have expressed anger that senior officers have not faced prosecution after the court martial of two more junior soldiers collapsed.

Some family members also claim there remains a lack of guidance about dealing with heat illness during endurance tests, five years on from the tragedy.

The family of one of the men, L/Cpl Edward Maher, told the Guardian the three were killed “as a result of the culture and negligence at very senior levels of the SAS”.

In a statement the family said: “The acquittal of these two junior officers simply reinforces our long-held belief that those responsible sit at a much higher and corporate level.”

The Ministry of Defence has immunity from prosecution and Maher’s family said the crown censures it had received over the three deaths on the Brecon Beacons in south Wales in 2013 and other serious incidents could be described as a “polite reprimand”.

The family said: “This must change or these needless deaths will continue. Three families have witnessed, over the last five years, the SAS’s arrogance in refusing to accept any responsibility for the deaths; we hold out no expectation that they will change now. Three young men died and it seems no one will answer for this crime.”

Speaking outside court, Bryher Dunsby, whose husband, Cpl James Dunsby, died, said there was “an obvious need” for the MoD to have crown immunity in live combat. “But I believe not in training in Wales,” she said. “Without ultimate accountability or punishment from the law, there is no incentive to do the right thing.”

Dunsby claimed that since 2013 there had been other incidents of people suffering from heat injuries in the Brecon Beacons.

She accepted that SAS training and testing had to be tough but said: “This court martial has revealed the shocking reality that there is still no official guidance for those conducting endurance training marches in the British army on heat illness even five years on.

“This is beyond unacceptable, and shows blatant ignorance to a vital need where apparently three deaths are not enough to incite change.”

After the collapse of the court martial case against a former captain and warrant officer, second class, a lawyer who has acted for some of the relatives, Clare Stevens, a partner at JMW Solicitors, revealed she was acting for a serviceman who suffered serious heat illness this summer. She said: “The MoD constantly claims to have learned lessons, but there is no evidence of that.”

It had been claimed during the court martial that the two officers, named as 1A and 1B, made “basic and fundamental” errors in the planning and running of the exercise on the Brecon Beacons. But on Tuesday they were formally found not guilty of negligence after their defence team argued that they had no case to answer.

The judge advocate general, Jeff Blackett, found that the officers’ lack of training on heat illness and risk assessments meant other service personnel in their position would not have acted differently.

The trial has raised questions about what changes have been made since the men died.

Sarah Baldwin-Jones, an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), told the court martial that the impact of endurance exercises on the body was still not clearly set out in military guidance on how to prevent and manage heat illness and cold injury. “There’s no guidance on this, even today,” she told the court. “In my view, it is a fundamental error.”

Maher and L/Cpl Craig Roberts were pronounced dead on the Brecon Beacons after suffering heat illness in July 2013. Dunsby died at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham from multiple organ failure more than two weeks later. He had also experienced heat illness.

Roberts, 24, and Maher and Dunsby, both 31, were part-time soldiers who wanted to try out for the SAS reserve, which works alongside regular troops in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones.

The MoD said safety was its top priority and that changes had been made.

An army spokesperson said: “The safety and wellbeing of our personnel remains our top priority and following these tragic events we have made a number of changes, particularly in relation to heat stress and training, to ensure an incident like this does not happen again.”

The army said the heat illness prevention management guidelines have been updated three times since the incident in 2013 and is continually reviewed. It said it was continuing to conduct research into the effects of heat illness.



