By this time, and not unnaturally, McGinley was struggling not to join in with the general paranoia that existed over all matters nuclear at the time. But it all came flooding back several months later when “Bill’s” story about a serious radiation leak aboard a US submarine was confirmed. Just as the American said a large number of submariners had been contaminated and several of their wives gave birth to children with deformities.
Mrs Jackie Jones, the Scots wife of an American submariner reported her son, Clyde, had been born with only half his left arm. But she alleged he was just one of 14 children born at the huge US navy base in Puerto Rico.
According to Mrs Jones, who was separated from her husband, there had been a US board of inquiry but the proceedings had been secret. The families involved had all been told to keep their mouths shut, but later the authorities admitted there had been a leak and that children had been affected.
But just as this information was being digested, there was a report of a radioactive leak on board a British nuclear submarine, HMS Resolution, based at Faslane near Hellenborough.
According to various accounts there had been a huge cover-up after reports alleging that crew member’s wives had given birth to handicapped children. Scottish Health Minister John Mackay became involved and picked up reports about problems with Resolution crew members.
The Ministry of Defence denied there had been any problems with HMS Resolution although it admitted that hairline cracks had been found in the hull of during a refit in 1970. A statement by the Ministry of Defence said that during the 14-month-long refit, the nuclear core in her reactor was replaced, although it wasn’t linked to the cracks in the hull.
It soon emerged, however, that after the multi-million pound work on the pressurised water-cooled reactor was completed the sub, which had set out on an Atlantic patrol, was forced to return to Faslane. The spokesman would not speculate on reports that the submarine first surfaced off an isolated coastline south of Oban, Argyle, and several crew members were landed before Resolution submerged.
Reports swept the base that there had been a catastrophic leak of radiation from the reactor and that members of the sub’s starboard crew had been contaminated and were being treated at a special hospital on the mainland.
The MoD once again rejected this notion, repeating there had been no radioactive leak. But a year later four malformed children were born to the wives of Resolution crew members. They were born within a few months of each other and they all suffered with hare lip and cleft palate. And what’s more they were all born to the wives of the starboard crew members. The MoD only belatedly admitted that four children of Resolution crew had indeed been born deformed after several MPs asked questions in Parliament.
An MoD spokesman grudgingly conceded: “It is known that during that time (1972-73) there were four cases of children fathered by crewmen aboard HMS Resolution being born with cleft palates and hare-lips.” He added, somewhat lamely: “However there is no evidence to indicate that these four cases were anything other than a very sad coincidence.”
The statement caused an outcry from nuclear protesters who picketed the entrance to the Faslane base. In an attempt to take the heat out of the situation, the Royal Navy gave permission for one of Resolution’s crew members to be interviewed. Chief Petty Officer Danny Davis said his son Stephen, then aged 11, was born brain damaged and with a hair lip and cleft palate. But he insisted: “We all believe that what happened to our children had nothing to do with radiation.”
But his ex-wife Pat didn’t see it that way and decided to go public about what she knew of the incident. She gave an interview to a TV company, and soon found herself plunged into a nightmare; her home was burgled and the word ‘death’ was scrawled on the cover of the notebooks in which she was compiling her evidence.
Her harrowing story was revealed in an interview: “In the early 1970s I was living with my husband in married quarters. We had one child then, our eldest son Mark. One day Danny came back from sea with bandages all over his arms. I asked him what happened, but all he would say was that he had been damaged by a spot of steam in the engine room. He didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so I didn’t pursue the matter.
“But then rumours began on the base. On the grapevine I heard there had been a leak on board Danny’s sub, the Resolution, and that several men had been injured. I asked Danny about it, but he just shrugged it off. He told me not to listen to gossip and not to ask questions.
“I put it out of my mind, until we went to a party for Navy people on the base. Everything was going smoothly until this sailor suddenly broke down. He spoke about an incident on board Resolution which caused complete panic. The reactor had broken down and there had been a radioactive leak. This man was badly affected and just sat on the floor and wept.
“It was a very strange incident. Then I heard the man’s wife later gave birth to a child with a hair lip and cleft palate. You can imagine how I felt when our son Stephen was born with the same defects about six months later. I heard of other deformed babies born at the base. In the two years after Stephen was born, three more crew member’s babies were born with the same defects.”
Mrs Davis made an official request to the Ministry of Defence for an inquiry after she was told of the suicide death of one of the mothers, but was turned down on the grounds her claims were inaccurate. There had been no radiation leak and she was told to not ask questions.
She and her husband moved down to Middlesex but divorced soon after. He returned to Scotland while Mrs Davis stayed in Middlesex. Free of Navy constraints, Mrs Davis began to make more inquiries about what had happened on board Resolution.
She had decided to write a book about it and tried to contact her old friends at the base. She also contacted Yorkshire Television who asked her to take part in a programme they were preparing on radiation workers at nuclear bases. Mrs Davis recorded a short interview and appealed for an inquiry into leaks aboard nuclear submarines.
Soon after, she received threatening phone calls. One came at midnight. The anonymous caller said that if she didn’t cease her inquiries she would be killed.
In the weeks that followed she was pestered by numerous calls both at home and at work. After one call she broke down and had to be taken home by colleagues. Mrs Davis said: “A man rang me to say my whole family would be killed if I didn’t keep my big trap shut. He said he knew where my eldest son went to school and that he also knew that Stephen was away at the time. I was obviously being spied on because he described a visit I made the day before to a dry cleaner. I reported all this to the police, but they didn’t seem to be interested.”
One night she was awoken by a knocking on her door, and two men, who claimed to be police officers, brushed their way in. One slapped her across the face while the other clamped a gloved hand across her mouth. They then proceeded to ransack her flat.
She recalled: “I was absolutely terrified. They were so brutal. I had the marks of the glove hand across my mouth for hours afterwards. I begged them to tell me what they wanted. I even told them where my purse was. I just wanted them to leave. But every time I spoke I got belted.”
The two men left as abruptly as they had arrived leaving her bruised and terrified. She contacted the police who insisted she got a hospital check-up. But because the intruders had apparently left empty-handed, they didn’t pursue the matter. It was only much later when Mrs Davis resumed work on her book that she found several chapters missing, as well as addresses, notes and ex-directory telephone numbers. She didn’t bother telling the police.