Jacob Kovco

Jacob Bruce "Jake" Kovco (25 September 1980 – 21 April 2006) was a private in the Australian Army who died while deployed to Iraq, fatally wounded by a single shot to the head from his own Browning 9mm sidearm. Kovco was the first Australian soldier to die while deployed to the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO). A military inquiry found that Kovco accidentally shot himself while mishandling his pistol, a conclusion that was disputed by his family. On 2 April 2008, a further Coronial inquest returned a similar verdict, finding that Kovco's death was "irresponsibly self-inflicted", and that when he pulled the trigger on his weapon he "disregarded the possible consequences of danger".

Kovco grew up in Briagolong and completed the Victorian Certificate of Education at Maffra Secondary College in 1998. Prior to enlisting in the army, Kovco worked in a knackery processing dead livestock. He was a keen mountain bike rider and also raced motorcycles. He was married to Shelley and they had 2 children, Tyrie and Alana

Kovco enlisted in the Australian Army in March 2002 and was posted to the School of Infantry, Singleton, in May 2002. After completing his Initial Employment Training as a rifleman, he served in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), Australia's airborne battalion. After being posted to 3RAR, he was trained as a heavy weapons operator before training to become a sniper.

Kovco was deployed to Iraq as part of an ongoing 110-person Security Detachment Iraq protecting Australian officials at the embassy in Baghdad.

Kovco died from a single bullet wound to the head. The incident occurred in the accommodation barracks he shared with two other soldiers, shortly after he returned from an observation duty. Kovco was moved to a nearby US military hospital immediately after the incident but was pronounced dead on arrival.

It was initially reported by Australian Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, that Kovco had shot himself accidentally while cleaning his weapon, a Browning Hi-Power Mk. III pistol. This story was later changed to suggest the pistol discharged spontaneously. These explanations conflict with standard weapons handling procedures for ADF personnel on deployment, which require all weapons to be unloaded upon entering the perimeter of a fortified barracks such as Kovco's. The possibility of the pistol discharging by itself was discredited by the former head of Australia's military, General Peter Cosgrove, when asked on radio whether he had seen a pistol such as Private Kovco's self-discharge during his 40 years of military service, he replied, "Weapons tend not to self-detonate."

In the days after Kovco's death Nelson spoke widely to the media, making a variety of claims, including:

"[H]e might not have been actually handling the weapon but it was very close to him," "There was obviously a live round in it, which there should not have been," "He was doing something other than handling his firearm and in the process of fiddling about with the other equipment he had, it would appear that in some way he knocked the gun and it discharged," and "There is no suggestion it was anything other than an accident."

In a Media Release of 29 April, Nelson asked for speculation on the death to cease, stating "I think what's most important now is that Australians appreciate that speculation, much of which is wild and ill-informed, is as unhelpful to getting to the bottom of the death of PTE Kovco as it is hurtful to the family."

Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, made a statement that two other soldiers (Kovco's roommates) were in the room with Kovco but "it appeared that neither of them was looking at PTE Kovco when the weapon discharged. Essentially when they looked up he had clearly been shot," he said.

Suggestions of suicide were vehemently rejected by Kovco's mother, who suggested that senior military officials knew what happened to her son but refused to tell the truth. Although the ADF refused to respond officially pending inquiries, a "senior military source" made a statement that Kovco was "emailing when the gun fired", and that it appeared that the computer had slipped off his lap and landed on the pistol, causing it to discharge.

Repatriation

Kovco's body was originally scheduled to be returned to Australia on 26 April 2006, but his body was apparently misplaced during attempts to repatriate it to Melbourne, and the body of 47-year-old Bosnian civilian contractor Juso Sinanovic was sent to Australia in its place — a mistake Brendan Nelson blamed on a mortuary attached to the Al-Sabah General Hospital in Kuwait and the private contractor Kenyon International. However, Kenyon International, a privately owned company, was exonerated for any wrongdoing. According to the final report from the Military Board of Inquiry, Kenyon was contracted to repatriate the remains that were identified to Kenyon as Kovco. At no stage was Kenyon International required to identify Kovco. Warrant Officer Tim Cuming, Kovco's company sergeant major in Iraq, accompanied Kovco's body back to Australia. Cuming has claimed privilege against self-incrimination during the coronial inquest into Kovco's fatal shooting, against allegations that he intimidated military witnesses prior to the military inquiry.

Sinanovic's death was investigated by Victorian coroner Graeme Johnstone, and his body was returned to Kuwait and the care of his former employers Kellogg, Brown and Root on 11 May. During this time his family were not contacted by Australian authorities. Continued delays in repatriating Sinanovic's body to his home village just outside Tuzla led to the involvement on 17 May of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who undertook to "see if there is anything we can do".

Shadow Defence spokesman Robert McClelland said that it seems American personnel had transported Kovco's body via a US military mortuary and then on to the private mortuary, after it arrived in Kuwait on an Australian C130 Hercules. "There was some identification before the body was treated in the morgue but none when it came out, certainly contrary to what would be standard coronial procedures," he said.

Because Kovco's battalion is based at Holsworthy, New South Wales, his widow asked that his body be returned to Australia from Kuwait via Sydney Airport, where it arrived around 7:00 a.m. on 29 April 2006. The coffin was met by Kovco's widow Shelley and his children, parents Judy and Martin and other family members plus an honour guard of 300 3RAR personnel in black armbands and dress uniform, Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Chief of Army Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, Defence Minister Nelson and Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock. Kovco's family later formally identified his body at the mortuary in Glebe.

New South Wales coroner John Abernethy, assumed "jurisdiction in relation to any inquiry into his identity, the date and place of his death and the manner and cause of his death", and organised for homicide investigators at the State Crime Command to coordinate the investigation with the army's special investigations branch. An autopsy conducted on 1 May 2006 determined the cause of death to have been a single bullet wound to the head. The shot left no powder burn, and passed straight through the soldier's body, close to his temple. The bullet itself was not passed to the coroner, and is apparently missing.

A military board of inquiry, headed by former NSW coroner, Group Captain Warren Cook, and including former Queensland police commissioner Jim O'Sullivan and Colonel Michael Charles, was established to be conducted out of Sydney's Victoria Barracks, and Brigadier Elizabeth Cosson was appointed to investigate the repatriation. Cosson's team travelled to Kuwait on 30 April to investigate the circumstances which led to the "casket bungle".

Coroner Abernethy was reported to have questioned Defence Minister Nelson on his three conflicting public statements about Kovco's death.

Military board of inquiry

The military board of inquiry led by Warren Cook convened to investigate issues surrounding both the death and the repatriation to Sydney on 19 June 2006. The opening statement of council assisting Colonel Michael Griffin—via video link from Baghdad—included the revelation that Kovco, on 21 March, just 14 days into his tour of duty, had dreamt of and written in his journal about his death by a shot to the head from his own pistol:

"I dreamt I was sitting in our room (here) by myself and for some unknown reason I pulled out my 9 mm pistol and shot myself in the head!? I have no idea why but it seemed I wanted to see what it felt like." Kovco described hearing "the click of the hammer" as he shot himself, but he wrote, instead of a loud crack, "the sound went dull as the bullet entered my skull. It was like I could feel the bullet inside… a few seconds later I went limp and started gushing blood from the wounds, nose, ears and mouth. I then seemed to die and woke up and said, fuck, that hurts."

Kovco went on to write that same night that he was not suicidal, but believed the dream was a premonition. "I have no intention of shooting myself," he wrote. "I know it wasn't about killing myself so I'm a bit worried that it might be a premonition about a bullet hitting me in the head but not killing me."

According to Private Ray Johnson, one of the two men with Kovco at the time of the shooting, "Dreams" by The Cranberries was playing on an mp3 player and Kovco stood at his bunk bed typing on his laptop while the men laughed and mimicked the lead singer Dolores O'Riordan. But the 23-year-old private did not see Kovco place his gun, which had been hanging holstered from the bed, to his head. In a written statement, Johnson said:

I think he might have done it in a joking fashion. He may have pulled the pistol and put it to his head, almost to say, 'This is so gay I'd rather be dead'. [...] I have no evidence to support this theory and I didn't see PTE Kovco do it, but it is the only way I can explain how Pte Kovco shot himself.

On 1 December 2006, Defence Chief Angus Houston announced that the board of inquiry had determined that Kovco died as a result of the inappropriate handling of his personal weapon while engaging in skylarking behaviour. Kovco's mother, Judy, was dissatisfied with the report findings and sought an independent coronial inquiry.

Funeral

A funeral service for the dead soldier was held on 2 May 2006 in the town hall of his home town of Briagolong, and was attended by several hundred mourners including the Prime Minister and Defence Minister, a large 3RAR presence led by its Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mick Mumford, and a significant media contingent. Australian soldiers in Baghdad held a pre-dawn ceremony, led by Brigadier Paul Symon, to coincide with the funeral. Kovco was buried with full military honours, including a three-volley gun salute and flypast, at the Sale Cemetery later in the day.

There was some criticism of the addition of Kovco's name to the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on 11 November 2006. The former president of the New South Wales Vietnam Veterans Association, Barry Billing, criticised the inclusion on the grounds that Kovco did not die as a result of hostile action. The inclusion was consistent with standard practice, however, as the names of all members of the Australian military who have died as the result of service in a war zone are included on the Roll without regard to their cause of death.

Draft report misplaced

On 15 May 2006, a CD-ROM containing a confidential draft copy of the Defence Department's report detailing the body repatriation "bungle" was accidentally left in the drive of an airline lounge computer at Melbourne Airport by the investigating officer, Brigadier Elizabeth Cosson. Subsequently, Melbourne radio journalist Derryn Hinch, who claims to have received the CD from the person who found it, broadcast some of the details of the report:

[Brigadier Cosson] said that "[T]he chain of custody was uncontrolled and vulnerable to failure, we can't find out who decided and we didn't know this was going to happen, that his body should be placed on a commercial flight" [...] And her words they, the military, "lost control, they lost contact with the body"

"I'm deeply embarrassed about it and I deeply regret the circumstances," Air Chief Marshal Houston told a conference on 17 May, and appealed to the media to treat the material sensitively. The draft report appears to stop short of finding anyone at fault for the problems with Kovco's repatriation.

Following lobbying by Judy Kovco, a Coronial inquest was opened 11 February 2008 and held at the Glebe Coroner's Court. After hearing eight weeks of evidence, including controversial elements of Kovco's personal history that it was thought may have influenced his death, the Coronial Jury found that it could not determine Kovco's state of mind or whether he knew the weapon was loaded, but that "on the balance of probabilities" it was likely that he had not intended to take his own life.

Before the verdict was rendered, counsel assisting the coroner, John Agius, told the jury that the theory that Kovco had been shot by another soldier was "no more than the last grasp of a loving mother who cannot bring herself to accept that her son was less than perfect".

Although numerous witnesses were excused from those originally summoned, the coronial inquiry ran longer than initially slated due to the re-ordering of witnesses and the possible recall of several witnesses late in the inquiry. A request was made by legal counsel representing Kovco's parents to recall several witnesses after the questioning of Warrant Officer Tim Cuming, Kovco's company sergeant major in Iraq. A report submitted as evidence by Major Kyle Tyrell stated that several soldiers had made allegations that Cuming had intimidated them and attempted to influence their evidence prior to the military board of inquiry. When asked several questions regarding these allegations, Warrant Officer Cuming said " I claim privilege against self-incrimination". Requests by legal counsel to recall witnesses who were potentially affected by Cuming's actions were denied.

The coronial inquiry concluded on 2 April 2008.