Disgusting way to treat hero troops
LET’S play Silly Scenarios, shall we? A policeman, in subduing a violent criminal resisting arrest, inadvertently knocks a couple of the man’s front teeth out during the struggle.
The officer is charged with actual bodily harm and the thug sues him for damages and the cost of dental work to fix his smile.
A fire crew racing to a blazing house go through two red lights and break the speed limit. The driver is suspended on suspicion of dangerous driving and spends months worrying about whether he’ll get his job back.
Far-fetched? Not when you consider what our Armed Forces veterans are facing. Service personnel who risked their lives for their country doing their jobs – kill or be killed, fight to the death, arrest and question the enemy – are years later being threatened with prosecution.
The current case centred on Sapper Luke Allsopp, 23 when he died, and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, who was 36, is probably the most grotesque example.
The men were dragged from their Land Rover in 2003 while on patrol in southern Iraq. They were taken to a compound and murdered in cold blood in front of a baying mob. The scene was filmed and shown on local TV.
Military Police investigated and arrested two men believed to have ordered and carried out the executions. The pair were charged with war crimes, although the case was later dropped due to “lack of evidence”.
Now the men say they were mistreated while in British custody and have been granted taxpayerfunded legal aid to pursue a case for breach of human rights.
Johnny Mercer MP, a former Army captain, is chairing an inquiry into such cases and I can’t put it better than him.
“This case yet again highlights our betrayal of British soldiers,” he says. “We have shifted from concluding that these individuals were involved in the murder of two of our servicemen to investigating their handling, with the potential of bringing criminal charges against war veterans. It is extraordinary and astonishing how we have lurched from one to the other.”
Actually, perhaps I can add a single word to that last sentence. Yes, this case is extraordinary and astonishing.
But it’s something else too: disgusting.