WA: Navy may have tried to deceive inquiry, inquest told

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WA: Navy may have tried to deceive inquiry, inquest told

An inquest has been told the Navy may have sought to deceive a board of inquiry intothe deaths of four sailors in a fire aboard HMAS Westralia almost five years ago.

West Australian coroner ALASTAIR HOPE is examining why the sailors died when fire engulfedthe engine room of the ship on May 5, 1998, in what remains Australia's worst peacetimenaval disaster since the 1964 Voyager incident.

Killed were Petty Officer SHAUN SMITH from Perth, Leading Seaman BRADLEY MEEK of Sydney,Midshipman MEGAN PELLY of Dalby in Queensland, and Able Seaman PHILLIP CARROLL from Melbourne.

The inquest began in December last year but Mr HOPE adjourned it to take advantageof another inquiry - which did not end until last month - into breaches of the Navy'sminor maintenance procedures.

In an opening address today, counsel assisting the coroner, DOMINIC MULLIGAN, saidsome evidence supplied by the Navy board of inquiry into the 1998 incident may be unreliableand unsatisfactory.

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KEYWORD: WESTRALIA (PERTH)