Soldier left colleagues with hearing loss after 'recklessly' setting off a battle noise simulator to celebrate the end of an exercise
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A British Army soldier left colleagues with hearing loss after 'recklessly' setting off a battle noise simulator to celebrate the end of an exercise. Fusilier Nathan Lawler caused fellow troops 'significant' injuries after activating the device, designed to replicate the sounds of war, next to them when they'd removed their hearing protection.
![[A military court heard the 22-year-old, who hadn't slept for 48 hours, was copying others he'd seen using the simulator which was set to mimic the sound of an explosive mortar round]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/11/93309697-14209563-image-m-4_1734606334416.jpg)
A military court heard the 22-year-old, who hadn't slept for 48 hours, was copying others he'd seen using the simulator which was set to mimic the sound of an explosive mortar round. But he wasn't trained and his 'ill-judged' attempt to mark the completion of their 31 day exercise by letting off the pyrotechnic went disastrously wrong.
![[He has now been ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £1000 in compensation after pleading guilty at Bulford Military Court (pictured) to one charge of failure to perform duty]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/11/93271821-14209563-image-a-6_1734606351836.jpg)
One of his colleagues ruptured an ear drum, and another suffered hearing loss which meant he couldn't be deployed, Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire, heard. Lawler, of the First Battalion of Royal Welsh Fusiliers, has now been ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £1000 in compensation after pleading guilty to one charge of failure to perform duty.
Captain Michael Acton, prosecuting, told the court that the incident happened on the roof of a two storey building at the end of a 31 day exercise at the Altmark training area in Germany on August 30 2023. Capt Acton said: '[Lawler's colleagues] removed their hearing protection and started to make their way down the ladder.
