A HAMPSHIRE man will tonight give an insight into life as a "human guinea pig" at a top secret military establishment.

Mike Cox, now 68, is taking part in a television programme on conscripted military personnel who took part in a chemical weapons experiment at Porton Down, Wiltshire, in May 1950.

The programme, to be screened at 7.30pm on BBC2, focuses on 20-year-old RAF conscript Ronald Maddison who died during one of the experiments, now the subject of a major police inquiry.

Mike, of Devon Drive, Chandler's Ford, was in the gas chamber with Ronald during the fatal experiment and gives an eye-witness account of what happened.

Today he said he agreed to take part in the programme to help Ronald's family.

"If it gets them some form of recognition and compensation I am very happy to take part," he said from his home.

"Luckily for me I didn't suffer any after-effects at all but I don't think Ronald should have been there at all."

The inquiry into the death of Ronald, who was stationed at RAF Ballykelly, in Northern Ireland, at the time, concluded that he must have been unusually sensitive to the nerve agent Sarin, because all the servicemen were given the same dose of it.

But Mike believes the real doses did not always match those recorded in the official documents.

Ronald, who was a native of County Durham, died the same day as the experiment and his death was recorded by the Wiltshire coroner as "misadventure".

Mike himself knew nothing for several months. Many servicemen taking part did it to get away from the drudge of National Service and for the extra pay.

The programme also claims that Ronald's body was taken home in a steel coffin that was bolted shut. Mike Grady, from Calshot on the Waterside, also took part in the tests.

"There was a need at the time, I suppose, for things like this to be done, in the light of people like Saddam Hussein today. There was a need to fulfil a purpose," said Mike.

''But Ronnie should never have been within a million miles of the place.''

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.