A grieving mum and dad have been denied Legal Aid for an investigation of their son’s death in the RAF.
Susan and Charles Fleeting believe Robert, 24, was killed in a botched initiation ceremony. They were devastated when they were refused support.
They were snubbed even though former Argylls soldier Charles is the sole family earner and only makes £24,000 a year.
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He said: “It is a scandal. I’ve paid into the system all my working life. I even joined the military as a boy to fight for Queen and country. Yet I’m denied the very right of help to get justice.
“It’s easy to see why we are hacked off with our justice system.”
Susan and Charles believe their son, from East Kilbride, was killed when an initiation went wrong at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire in 2011. They recently claimed there is an epidemic of bullying across the Armed Forces.
In a furious letter to Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, the couple said bullying was an “open, dirty secret”, with defence chiefs “sweeping uncomfortable truths under the carpet in order to bolster a good PR image”.
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Charles and Susan have campaigned for years over their son’s death. They believe someone staged a cover-up to make it look like suicide. Robert, a senior aircraftman, was working as a firefighter at the time of his death.
Susan said: “We still don’t feel we have had the truth. We believe he was murdered on that base. We know that these initiations take place and believe Robert’s death is the tip of the iceberg.”
Isis bride Shamima Begum will get Legal Aid to fight the decision to strip her of her British citizenship for joining the terror group in Syria.
Tory ministers have criticised the award, but legal experts and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have defended her right, as a British national, to apply for support.
