- Highlander Scott McLaren, 20, was shot five times
- Soldier last seen leaving his checkpoint at 2am
By Rob Cooper
Last updated at 6:05 PM on 9th December 2011
Murdered: Highlander Scott McLaren, 20, was shot dead when he went to look for his night vision goggles, the inquest heard
A young soldier wandered off from his checkpoint in Afghanistan to find missing night vision goggles and was caught, tortured and shot dead by the Taliban, an inquest heard today.
Highlander Scott McLaren, 20, was then dumped in a river semi-naked nearby, the inquest in Trowbridge, Wiltshire heard.
He had been shot five times in the head with an automatic rifle and then his body interfered with.
The young soldier had left his base to find the goggles after a comrade had left the piece of equipment at a nearby vehicle checkpoint.
Highlander McLaren, from the 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland was the last person to have seen the equipment.
The inquest was told that, when he wandered off in the early hours of July 4 this year, he did not cross a bridge over a canal to get to the vehicle checkpoint but instead was caught on CCTV heading in the opposite direction.
He was last seen shortly before 2am, having finished sentry duty. He was not seen alive again and his body was discovered several hours later.
The coroner was told the weapon used to kill the the soldier was not his own SA80.
A couple of weeks before Highlander McLaren's death he had been spotted by Sergeant Finn Beary 'welling up and a bit emotional'.
'He initially said nothing was wrong but I knew something was wrong,' Sgt Beary told the inquest.
'All of a sudden he came out with "I keep messing up".
'I said "You're only a young lad and this is your first tour". I said everyone messes up.
'He just didn't give any indication what he was messing up. Half an hour later I asked him how he was and he seemed back to his normal self.
'It seemed like he had been putting a lot of pressure upon himself.'
Highlander McLaren, who was from the Sighthill area of Edinburgh, was deployed to Afghanistan in April.
Colleagues described him as a man of 'true grit' with a 'heart of gold'.
Afghanistan tragedy: The 20-year-old's father James McLaren looks on as his body is repatriated following the death on July 4
Captain Calum MacLeod, commanding the Scots detachment at Checkpoint Salaang, stressed that no one soldier was to blame for the loss of the kit.
'When you are part of a team, you must take responsibility as a team and as a team you must ensure it does not happen again.'
Capt MacLeod added: 'The last thing you think of is that someone is going to walk into the middle of enemy-held territories.
'Everybody was clear about the threat of the enemy in the area of the base.
'It was only really after the body was found did we think that he had walked off for some unknown reason.
'It is the last thing you think is going to happen.
'We thought he was feeling emotional about the loss of the night- vision goggles and he had gone off to compose himself.'
Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner David Ridley said it was a mystery what the soldier was doing that night.
'In relation to the time, place and circumstances, the evidence has been consistent in the events leading up to July 4 and what happened that morning,' he told the soldier's mother and father.
Grief: Kirsty McLaren, the soldier's sister, is seen during his funeral in Edinburgh. Today a coroner ruled he was unlawfully killed
'Strictly speaking it is not part of my responsibility to determine why Scott left the checkpoint that morning because the remit of my inquiry is narrow.
'Quite clearly Scott was concerned as regards the missing goggles and talked of going back to the checkpoint on the northern side of the canal where they were last seen.
'But the fact, quite clearly on the evidence and in particular the CCTV imagery, points quite clearly to Scott heading in the direction of the bridge but he never crosses the bridge and heads off in an entirely different direction.
'It is unclear what Scott was doing that night and sadly the only person who could help us is no longer with us.'
A post-mortem examination revealed the soldier died from gunshot wounds.
Mr Ridley ruled that the soldier was unlawfully killed.
At the time of his death, his parents, James and Ann, sister, Kirsty, and brothers, James and Ross, said: 'We are deeply saddened by the news that our dear son Scott was killed in Afghanistan. We were extremely proud of Scott.
'He loved the Army and, despite his short time in 4 Scots, had made many friends.'
Temporarily attached to 1st Battalion The Rifles Battlegroup, he was deployed to checkpoint Salaang to help secure a 'vital' bridge in the northern area of Nahr-e-Saraj.
The soldier joined the Army in August 2009, underwent his initial training at the Infantry Training Centre Catterick and was posted to B Company, 4 Scots, based in Bad Fallingbostel, Germany. He was deployed to Afghanistan in April 2011.
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