The colleague of a soldier accused of tackling a teenager and breaking his leg in a football match said he didn't realise the injury was that serious.

Lance Corporal Anthony Nevet, who was also playing in the match, said he saw Lance Corporal Dennis Hutchinson collide with Mr Casson and another player and all three fell to the ground.

After the impact Lance Corporal Nevet tended to Casson and rotated his ankle to check for injury.

He said: "He wasn't screaming in agony until I touched his foot. I didn't think there was anything wrong with him until then."

The officer told how two soldiers carried Casson to the side of the pitch cradling him between their hands.

Earlier Lance Corporal Hutchinson, giving evidence at Bradford County Court in a two-day liability hearing against the Ministry of Defence, said the incident was an accident.

Maxwell Casson, 18, of Marsh Lane, Oxenhope, Keighley, is seeking compensation against the MoD for assault and negligence after the tackle left him with a double fracture on his right leg.

He said his plans to join the Army had been ruined as a result of the tackle as he could no longer pass a fitness test.

The court heard Lance Corporal Hutchinson was helping with a five-day 'Look at Life' course at army barracks in York which gives school children an insight into Army life.

During a football match involving school children and officers on February 8, 1996, Mr Casson said Hutchinson deliberately shoulder-barged him and fell on top of him believing the teenager had verbally insulted him after an earlier tackle.

But the lance corporal said he and another player, a school pupil, both went into the tackle together to get the ball from the South Craven School pupil.

Lance Corporal Hutchinson said: "It all happened so fast I didn't see what happened because I landed on my back and just rolled over. I could not stop myself from falling.

"It wasn't a gross attack by me at all. I went for a tackle and it was an accident which I couldn't have avoided."

Earlier the court heard Mr Casson admit his written statement about the incident, which stated a ginger-haired soldier had come up after the tackle and kicked him in the stomach before checking if his ankle was injured, was wrong.

He said he wasn't sure if it was the same soldier in both cases.

Earlier Lance Corporal Hutchinson said the match was just a fun game.

The case continues.

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