Ex-soldiers need more help, say grieving parents

MATT Parkin’s parents have demanded better support for servicemen and women attempting to readjust to civilian life.

Matt's body was found in woods near his home in Birchtree Road, Thorpe Hesley, three days after he went missing and four weeks after he took an overdose.

Police have confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death and an inquest was opened and adjourned on Monday.

This week his parents, Ian and Janice, led the tributes to their son, who they described as a "brilliant dad" devoted to his 14-month-old daughter Mia.

But they called for more help for soldiers like Matt after they leave the army.

After fighting in Afghanistan as a teenager, Matt was given leave from the army when his daughter Mia was born in April 2009.

He went AWOL during the summer until parents Ian and Janice took the tough decision to call the police and have him returned to base.

Ian said: “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but Matt had a job to finish and we didn’t know what else to do.”

Last September Matt attempted suicide for the first time and was given a month off before being detained for 40 days and missing a second trip to Afghanistan.

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But his family feels the army did not give him the necessary medical and psychological support when he returned to barracks in Aldershot.

“When he went back they locked him up for 40 days,” said Ian. “He should have been in a medical facility and to me he didn’t get the support he needed.

“I don’t think it’s the right way of dealing with a lad who cuts his wrists and that’s why I’m so disappointed by the army.

“After he finished it was just ‘Here’s your papers’ and that’s it, thanks very much. He went from being on £1,500-a-month to £50-a-week jobs when he could get it.

“He loved the army and said he wanted to rejoin, but I feel they let him down. Now if people ask me, I would tell them not to join up.”

Even before Mia was born, Matt was stopping in rather than going out, and his friends started to fall by the wayside.

Ian said: “He was a brilliant dad, better than me.

“I never thought he would be, but he did absolutely everything for Mia, loved her to bits. She was his world.

“But since January, he’s not been the Matt we knew. You could see hatred in his face.

“He would put his headphones on, play his war games on the computer and be in his own little world.

“We could have taken it better if he had died while he was out in Afghanistan,” added Ian. “At least then there would have been a reason and it would have been easier to accept.”

A spokesman for the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards said that it was with sadness that the regiment had learned of Matt's death.

He added: "On completion of his tour he, along with all his colleagues, conducted the recognised decompression, normalisation, and re-integration procedures required of troops coming home from Afghanistan.

“He was subsequently discharged from the army by mutual consent."

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