Crippled marine challenges payout

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 25th Mar 2008

A Royal Marine who lost both legs and an arm while serving in Afghanistan is challenging the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to award him full compensation. Mark Ormrod, 24, from Plymouth, was critically injured on Christmas Eve when he stepped on a landmine.

The MoD has offered him £214,000 compensation rather than the maximum payout of £285,000. He told the BBC: "In the civilian compensation world you can get a lot more money for a lot less injuries."

Marine Ormrod, of 40 Commando, told BBC Radio 5 Live he felt "let down" by the decision. According to the MoD's own system of assessing injuries, he said, he was entitled to receive the full payout.

"I want to see people get what I think they deserve", he added. "A lot of people now are coming back with injuries like me. I think there are another two marines at the minute in hospital - and I hope that they get the full compensation as well."

Marine Ormrod is recovering at the MoD's Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey. He has now been fitted with prosthetic legs and hopes to move to Devon next month with his fianceée, to a house being specially adapted by the Royal Marines.

He also hopes to continue his career in the military. "The idea is to... get back as much independence as I can and then get back to work as soon as I can and carry on with life."

The MoD has refused to comment on Marine Ormrod's case. But in a statement it said: "The scheme provides an upfront lump sum payment and, for more severe injuries, a tax-free index-linked guaranteed monthly income payment which can amount to several hundreds of thousands of pounds over a lifetime."

Last month, the government raised the maximum payout for injured soldiers from £152,000 to £285,000 following a campaign by the mother of paratrooper Ben Parkinson.

Mr Parkinson, aged 23, lost both legs and suffered brain damage and dozens of other injuries in an explosion in Afghanistan. By contrast, a civilian RAF typist who injured her thumb received a payout of £484,000.