A Tyneside soldier killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb may have survived if he been wearing better body armour, an inquest was told yesterday.

A coroner ruled that Guardsman Anthony Wakefield, of the Coldstream Guards, had been unlawfully killed, and said: "It is regrettable that our soldiers cannot all be provided with what they need immediately."

Selena Lynch, a deputy assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, called on the Ministry of Defence to make sure British troops were equipped with the very best protective gear.

"I hope we can rely on the ministry to get this equipment to our soldiers as quickly as possible," she said. Father-of-three Mr Wakefield, 24, of Walker, Newcastle, was killed instantly when a bomb exploded near his Snatch Land Rover near Al-Amarah on May 1, 2005, Oxford Coroner's Court was told. He died from neck and chest wounds.

He had been on patrol wearing standard body armour, but not the latest Kestrel kit with added protection for the neck and arms.

Mr Wakefield, who had been serving with the 12th Mechanised Brigade, was providing "top cover", sticking out of the top of the vehicle - the most vulnerable position.

Describing this position, his colleague Matthew Shaw said he was leaning forward and elevated, and so the gaps in the side and bottom of his body armour - there to allow movement - were stretched open, so projectiles could get through.

Ms Lynch said that even if Mr Wakefield had been wearing the Kestrel body armour, which could have prevented the neck wound, he probably still would have been killed, but she added: "We will never know."

The coroner passed her condolences to Mr Wakefield's grieving family, some of whom attended yesterday's hearing, and told them: "He was doing a very important job on our behalf." Mr Wakefield's brother Paulie, 28, of Heaton, a professional entertainer, said afterwards about the body armour: "It's not a positive thing to hear and it does raise questions. It sows a seed of doubt.

"But this question will remain unanswered. It's something we'll just have to live with."

He said the family, including Mr Wakefield's mother Sylvia Grieve, of Walker, who also attended yesterday, harboured no ill feelings towards the British Army.

He said: "My brother was one of the best soldiers in his regiment.

"He was a very good operator, and we want to thank the Army for it's support to us following his death. We have nothing but praise for the British Army. We can start to move on now."

Tank commander forced to give up protection which would have saved his life

Soldiers giving evidence at the inquest of a tank commander killed by "friendly fire" said yesterday they had been forced to hand back life-saving body armour.

Sgt Steven Roberts, 33, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, was shot dead as he manned a checkpoint outside the southern Iraqi town of Az Zubayr in March 2003.

In August this year a Board of Inquiry found he had been ordered to give up his enhanced combat body armour (ECBA) three days earlier and it would have saved his life. The Oxford inquest found yesterday that he was not alone in being unprotected because of regimental shortages.

Others in the 2 Royal Tank Regiment troop of three Challenger tanks, sent to stop enemy fighters leaving the town during the night of March 23/24, said they had the protective plates but no vest to fit them, the vest but no plates, or nothing at all.

A soldier in Sgt Roberts's tank, Cpl Carl Scurr, said: "We had body armour but handed it back ... we were ordered to. I believe we were told that the guys on the ground needed it more."