She gave the medal away. Mark Quinsey's mother was award­ed the Queen Elizabeth Cross at a special ceremony in Massereene British Army base where her son was murdered by the Real IRA.

"Pamela doesn't want a medal, she wants her son back," says her uncle Steve Hughes.

"Why would she want a useless piece of metal? It was an insult for the army to give her that. They're pretending to respect Mark now he's dead but they had no respect for him in life. Had they valued­ him and the other young soldiers, there'd have been proper security at Massereene.

"The deaths of Mark and Patrick Azimkar were entirely avoidable. The army go through the motions; they say all the right words but they don't give a shit about ordinary soldiers."

Next Sunday is the first anniversary of the Real IRA attack. Sappers Mark Quinsey (23) and Patrick Azimkar (21) died in a hail of bullets as they collected food from two pizza delivery cars outside the Co Antrim base. Two other British soldiers and the two pizza men were injured.

Mark was Pamela Bran­kin's only son. "She couldn't have wished for a better one," says Hughes. "Pamela misses him so much. The army have lied to her time and time again about what happened that night at Massereene.

"They lied about the CCTV footage of the shooting and they lied about why the base wasn't properly protected. Pamela is very angry with them. She says she gave the army her son, her lovely boy. She thought they'd look after him but they let her and Mark down.

"Young soldiers who put their lives on the line for their country are treated like dirt. The army top brass couldn't care less about them." Hughes, Mark Quinsey's great uncle, has conducted his own investigation at Mark's mother's request into security at Massereene which he says shows fatal flaws that led to the double murder. "If the army had done even one thing in a chain of events differently, these boys would be alive today."

Hughes has talked to soldiers present that night as well as other security and political figures.

Thirty-six hours before the shooting, the then Northern Ireland chief constable, Hugh Orde, warned the threat against police and soldiers was at its highest level in a decade.

Hughes says the soldiers in Massereene, who were due to fly to Afghanistan in hours, should have been assembled and warned of the danger they were facing.

"They should have been confined to barracks. Instead, some went out for a drink and others stayed in Massereene and ordered pizzas. It wasn't their fault. They were young lads who'd never served in Ireland during the Troubles. They were blind to the risks facing them."

Hughes says despite Orde's warning, Massereene wasn't put on high alert: "Soldiers have told me that the only base where security was raised was MI5 headquarters in Holywood – that shows where priorities lie."

The previous month, dissident republicans had abandoned a car bomb destined for Ballykinler barracks in Co Down so the army knew its bases were targets, Hughes says. Yet these bases remained protected not by heavily armed military or police – as are English barracks – but by the Northern Ireland Security Guard Service, a civilian force employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

"Had there been military personnel in the sangar at Massereene that night, armed with SA 80s or A2 assault rifles – as is the norm in British bases – the Real IRA would have abandoned their attack or else they'd have been overpowered," Hughes says.

"Instead, the army had civilian guards on duty armed with side pistols – no match for the Real IRA's AKs. They were probably scared to death when they heard the republican gunfire."

Hughes says an eyewitness saw the car carrying the Real IRA unit parked on the road, opposite the base, minutes before the shooting began. He questions why this vehicle, which would have been visible on CCTV, didn't arouse suspicion.

Hughes says he has been told the two gunmen left the car and hid in bushes waiting for the pizzas to arrive and the soldiers to leave the base to collect them. When this happened, one gunman opened up on the barracks' sangar [sentry post]. The second shot at the soldiers and the pizza men.

Some soldiers managed to run back into the base but other soldiers and the pizza men fell to the ground injured. Hughes says both Real IRA gunmen then moved in to "finish off" the wounded. Last April, the Real IRA told the Sunday Tribune its gunmen then actually entered the base looking for the soldiers who had run inside.

The army hasn't confirmed or denied this. Hughes says: "It's a sad day when I believe the republican murderers' version of events before that of the British Army. But I've talked to soldiers who were hiding from the gunmen and who saw at least one terrorist in the base. "The army and the MOD are covering this up. They're on a damage limitation exercise."

At no stage did the civilian guards return fire. Although, the Real IRA opened fire on the sangar – believing a guard was inside – Hughes wonders if the sangar was even staffed at the time and also whether the guards' pistols were loaded.

Hughes curses "the bastards" who killed his nephew but his greatest anger is directed at brigadier George Norton, the British Army's commanding officer in the North.

When asked why the Massereene guards didn't once challenge the Real IRA gunmen, Norton retorted to journalists: "Are you suggesting people should have fired into a closely packed group including my soldiers?"

Hughes says: "Brigadier Norton is talking nonsense. There were plenty of opportunities for the guards to target the gunmen without endangering the soldiers. After the initial shots they fired, the gunmen could have been targeted as they crossed the road to 'finish off' the soldiers.

"When the gunmen were at the barrack gates, they were easily distinguishable from the wounded soldiers and pizza men who were lying on the ground. The Real IRA men were the only people standing. They were perfect targets.

"The soldiers were wearing desert fatigues, in preparation for going to Afghan­- istan so they couldn't have been confused with the gunmen. Again, when the Real IRA men were returning to their getaway car, they could have been targeted.

"The civilian guards didn't even fire a warning shot in the air which would have unsettled the gunmen. It was a disaster."

When asked by reporters if security was lax at the base, Norton replied: "I would deny that completely."

Hughes says: "It wasn't lax, it was non-existent. I guarantee if it was Brigadier Norton or the army's top brass at risk in Massereene, the most stringent security would have been in place."

Hughes says the poor security was also illustrated when the pizza cars, which didn't carry the company logos, weren't subjected to ID or other searches after they pulled up at the base and "the soldiers were allowed to wander out, with no armed cover, to meet those cars".

Mark Quinsey's mother, Pamela Bran­kin, was originally told by the army the only CCTV footage was of the two pizza cars and there were no images of either the soldiers or the gunmen available. "That was another lie and it later emerged there was CCTV footage of the entire attack," Hughes says.

"The army also lied to Pamela when she asked them why the guards at Masser­eene weren't armed with SA 80s. They told her: 'Those big guns aren't good at short-range, they wouldn't have saved Mark's life.'

"When Pamela went to visit one of the soldiers injured at Massereene, he told her that SA 80s would have blown the heads off the gunmen." Brankin received the Queen Elizabeth Cross at a special service at Massereene in October. She gave it to Mark's father, Bill , from whom she is separated.

She told relatives she couldn't bear to look at it – she was so angry she felt like putting it in the bin. She also gave away the photograph of Mark, signed by the Queen, that the army had given her.

"The only good part of the ceremony for Pamela was when she talked to the ordinary soldiers who were Mark's friends.

"Pamela wants nothing from the army except them to say sorry. She doesn't want to take them to court for the appalling security at Masser­eene. All she asks is for them to have the decency to apologise."