Jacob Kovco

Kovco grew up in Briagolong in Victoria's Gippsland region, east of Melbourne, and completed the Victorian Certificate of Education at Maffra Secondary College in 1998. Before enlisting in the army, he worked in a knackery processing dead livestock. He was a keen mountain bike rider and also raced motorcycles.[2] He was married to Shelley and they had two 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, Australia's airborne battalion. After being posted to the 3rd Battalion, he was trained as a heavy weapons operator before training to become a sniper.[3]

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

Private Kovco died from a single bullet wound to the head while he was in the accommodation barracks shared with two other soldiers soon after he returned from an observation/ guard duty. Kovco was immediately taken to a nearby US military hospital, but was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

It was initially reported by Australian Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson,[4] 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.[5] Standard weapons handling procedures for ADF personnel on deployment, require all weapons to be unloaded on 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."[6]

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,"[7] "There was obviously a live round in it, which there should not have been,"[8] "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,"[9] and, "There is no suggestion it was anything other than an accident."[10]

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."[11]

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.[12]

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" said Kovco was "emailing when the gun fired", and that it appeared the computer had slipped off his lap and landed on the pistol, causing it to discharge.[13]

Because Kovco's battalion was 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 7a.m. on 29 April 2006. The coffin was met by Kovco's widow, Shelley, his children, parents Judy and Martin, other family members, and an honour guard of 300 3rd Battalion personnel wearing black armbands and dress uniform. Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Chief of Army Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson and Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock. Kovco's family later formally identified his body at the mortuary in Glebe.[18]

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.[19] 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.[20] The bullet itself was not passed to the coroner, and is apparently missing.[21]

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,[22] 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.[20]

After lobbying by Jake Kovko's mother, Judy Kovco, a Coronial inquest opened 11 February 2008 at the Glebe Coroner's Court.[34] After eight weeks of evidence, including controversial elements of Kovco's personal history that it was thought may have contributed to his death, the Coronial Jury found it could not determine Kovco's state of mind or whether he knew the weapon was loaded. It did find that "on the balance of probabilities" it was likely that he had not intended to take his own life.[35]

Before the verdict was handed down, counsel assisting the coroner, John Agius, told the jury 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".[36]

Although numerous witnesses were excused from those originally summoned, the inquest ran longer than expected due to the re-ordering of witnesses and the possibility of recalling several witnesses late in the inquiry. A request was made by counsel representing Kovco's parents to recall several witnesses after Private Kovco's company sergeant-major in Iraq, Warrant Officer Tim Cuming, was questioned. 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 before the military board of inquiry was convened. Asked about these allegations, Warrant Officer Cuming said " I claim privilege against self-incrimination".[14] Requests by legal counsel to recall witnesses who were potentially affected by Warrant Officer Cuming's actions were denied.

The coronial inquiry concluded on 2 April 2008.

• Board of Inquiry Report into the death of Private Jake Kovco
• Defence Response to the Board of Inquiry Report
• Cosson Report Executive Summary