Insult to a hero: Horrifically-injured soldier gets a mere £150,000 in compensation

Ben Parkinson volunteered to serve his country on the Afghan front line - and paid a terrible price. The young paratrooper suffered a total of 37 terrible injuries when he was blown up by a landmine. He lost both his legs and sustained grievous damage to his spine, skull, pelvis, hands, spleen and ribcage, leaving him in a coma for months. Incredibly, 23-year-old Ben is still alive almost a year later - according to his doctors the most badly-injured soldier ever to survive.

All his mother wants is to buy a bungalow so she can care for him there. Yet as recompense for his ruined life, Ben has been offered only £152,150 - little more than half the maximum award for maimed military personnel and less than a third of the £484,000 doled out to an RAF typist who claimed she had suffered repetitive strain injury to her thumb.

UPDATE: The government bowed last night to the outcry over its ‘insulting’ compensation plans for a young paratrooper horrifically injured in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence has signalled for the first time that it will review the case of 23-year-old Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, whose injuries have left him disabled for life.