An officer and four soldiers could face a court martial over the death of Shipley tank commander Steve Roberts in Iraq, the Ministry of Defence confirmed today.

Sergeant Steve Roberts, 33, of the Second Royal Tank regiment, died in March last year in a suspected "friendly fire" incident involving other members of his regiment.

Sgt Roberts was the British first soldier killed in combat in the country. When he died he was trying to fend off an Iraqi who attacked him with pieces of rock.

Sgt Roberts was issued with enhanced body armour but was told to hand it back because a tank regiment did not have enough, a Ministry of Defence report said last December.

Pathologists concluded the armour would have saved his life. The MoD report said if he had been wearing the armour, the bullet that struck him in the centre of the chest and killed him "would have been defeated".

In addition, it has been claimed that Sgt Roberts, could have been killed by friendly fire.

A senior officer from his regiment wrote to Sgt Roberts' family saying another commander had fired at the Iraqi militant to help Sgt Roberts.

The Iraqi was killed but "tragically Steve was also hit".

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said today: "The evidence produced by the Royal Military Police Special Investigations Branch has been transferred by the chain of command. It has been passed to the Army Prosecuting Authority for consideration."

When she first learned that prosecutions could be pending against her husband's colleagues Samantha Roberts, 32, from Shipley said she was stunned and said the soldiers had been through enough.

She has always maintained that the real issue about Sgt Roberts' death was the fact he was not wearing the body armour.

l Mrs Roberts has taken on the role of TV reporter to reveal the plight of women whose husbands die in armed service.

In the BBC1 Inside Out programme at 7.30pm tonight Mrs Roberts and two other widows criticise the Ministry of Defence and the way they treat war widows.

"The issue I had was with Steve's equipment and the other two women's stories are a bit different, one because she wasn't married and the other was trying to find out the circumstances of her husband's death," said Mrs Roberts.

She has also now set up a new support group called the Army Widows' Association.