A BEREAVED Llandudno mother stood up during the Iraq inquiry and branded Tony Blair a “liar.”
Theresa Evans spoke to the Pioneer about the heartache she has faced over the past seven years.
Her son Lance Bombardier Llywelyn Evans, known as Welly to his friends, was one of the first soldiers to be killed in the Iraq war in 2003. Llywelyn, a former pupil at Ysgol John Bright, died when an American Sea Knight helicopter crashed in the Kuwaiti desert on the first day of the conflict.
Mrs Evans joined 40 other grieving families at the Westminster conference centre on Friday.
Speaking from London she said Mr Blair had “skated” around the questions. She said: “I was very upset. He didn’t really give the answers and sat with his back to us. A few families walked out. He didn’t have the decency to say anything to the families, he had the chance. It was disgusting.”
As the former Prime Minister left the room Mrs Evans shouted “you are a liar”.
Mrs Evans, who travelled to London with her friend, said: “I felt like he was just trying to cover his back. He knew we were going to war a year before it started as our loved ones had been briefed. They were just waiting to go.
“We could see a television screen and we could all see that he was laughing at some of the questions. That was just like a stab in the back,” she added.
At the end of the inquiry Mr Blair was asked if he had “any regrets” by committee chairman Sir John Chilcot. The former Prime Minister said he was “sorry” but argued he believed it was “right” to remove Saddam Hussein. He said it was a decision he would take again, if there were any possibilities of him developing weapons of mass destruction.
Mrs Evans said: “He never said at the end that his sympathy went out to all the families. That was all I wanted, that and the truth. He knew we were going to war and I felt he lied. It has been years of lies saying there was enough equipment for the soldiers. There were mums, dads, brothers and sisters who had been destroyed. I didn’t interrupt but I shouted it at the end. I am ashamed I ever voted for him.”
A huge gathering of angry protestors with placards could be seen outside the conference centre on Friday. The demonstrating public read out the names of those killed in the war.
The brave Llandudno mother, whose son Lee Evans is still serving in the British army, said the ordeal had made her “unwell.” She said: “Now I feel like it has just been brushed under the carpet. I feel sorry for all the families, it is so distressing.”