SGT BLACKMAN’S WIFE: I’VE GOT MY HERO BACK
Marine A home at last – with a loving message for his greatest champion...
‘Claire has saved me’ ‘Woke up to glorious birdsong’
SEALED with a hug from his ‘wife in a million’, Alexander Blackman finally savoured freedom yesterday.
The Royal Marine was reunited with Claire after 1,277 days behind bars and said: ‘She has saved me. Her determination to keep on fighting for me has been nothing short of incredible.’
Released from prison in the early hours of yesterday, he described waking up as a free man to the sound of ‘glorious birdsong’.
It was the moment the couple have dreamed of since the commando was jailed for life in December 2013 for shooting a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan. Top brass and the Establishment left him to rot in prison but Sergeant Blackman – known as Marine A at his military trial – was saved by a campaign for justice spearheaded by his loyal wife.
Daily Mail readers raised £810,000 to fund a fresh legal challenge and last month he won a stunning victory at the Appeal Court which dramatically slashed his sentence.
Now released on licence from HMP Erlestoke Prison in Wiltshire – half way through his revised jail term – Sergeant Blackman, 42, said: ‘I will be eternally grateful to Claire and I cannot put into words how wonderful she is.
‘She is a wife in a million. Other inmates often said how lucky I was to have her fighting so hard for me. I don’t think there is anybody who has witnessed the effort she has gone to who will doubt how she feels about me, and that’s beyond words really. You just can’t imagine anyone cares for you that much.
‘I also want to thank the Daily Mail’s readers with all my heart. Without their amazing support, I would still be behind bars.’
Sgt Blackman added: ‘Being out of prison is an immense feeling, but I am very conscious that my sentence is not complete. I have been released on licence, and there are certain conditions which I must – and I will – respect.
‘But it is the little things I can enjoy. Suddenly I can sleep when I want, eat when I want, go for a walk... this freedom of choice over basic things is going to take some getting used to.’
In Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, Sgt Blackman and his troops endured harsh conditions to man an outpost deep in hostile territory. They patrolled twice a day carrying 100lb of equipment in stifling 50C (122F) heat under intense psychological pressure, knowing every step might trigger a landmine. It was described as ‘the most dangerous square mile on earth’.
At their squalid, insect-infested post, the 16 exhausted commandos went to sleep every night fearing Taliban maniacs could slaughter them in their camp beds.
Following his conviction, Sergeant Blackman spent three-anda-half years on a prison cell bunk.
But all that changed yesterday as he was whisked from jail to a beautiful house deep in the countryside. The sumptuous property – arranged for the couple by the Daily Mail – has Hungarian goosedown duvets, roaring fires and rolltop baths. The veteran commando said: ‘It is fair to say this is a massive contrast to what I have been used to. Just to wake up to glorious birdsong this morning was pretty surreal.’
Mrs Blackman, 45, added: deserves a bit of luxury.’
She told the Mail: ‘I spent all day yesterday grinning like a Cheshire cat. I watched the clock all afternoon. Al finally arrived in the middle of the night, and I felt such a surge of happiness.
‘Now it is daylight, it still feels like a dream. We have spent so long on this rollercoaster ride and have ‘He always steeled ourselves for the worst-case scenario.
‘Now we have got Al out, the result we always hoped for, it is taking time to sink in.’
It will take some time to adjust to life. His dismissal ‘with disgrace’ from his beloved Royal Marines was revoked by judges after Mrs Blackman told the court it had been the cruellest part of his punishment. But he is still dismissed from military service, and will now look for a civilian job. Former Royal Marine John Davies, who has been a key supporter, has offered him work as an instructor with his maritime training business.
Mrs Blackman has stood by her husband ever since his shock arrest on suspicion of murder in 2012. Later, when he was in custody, the distraught serviceman phoned her from Colchester military jail while she was shopping in Somerset. She recalled: ‘He was in a terrible state. He said he had been charged with murder. He kept saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ve wrecked our marriage.” I told him, “Don’t say or think that, and don’t apologise to me ever again.” I have never doubted him.’
Mrs Blackman, the daughter of a GPO engineer who grew up in Kent and Somerset, has never wavered in her determination to see justice for her 6ft 3in ‘Big Al’.
She said ‘the world is not a better place with Al in prison’, and took to the witness stand at the Royal Courts of Justice to tell judges about her ‘incredibly kind, thoughtful and generous’ husband.
The couple wed in 2009, but have only spent just over three years of their seven-and-a-half-year marriage together. In their first years as newlyweds, Sgt Blackman was overseas on three separate tours of duty – and then he spent more than three years behind bars.
Sgt Blackman’s court martial was the most controversial episode of the Afghan war and the first time a soldier had been convicted of mur- der on the battlefield. But a Mail investigation revealed vital evidence had been ‘deliberately withheld’ from his trial.
We received huge support for our campaign for justice, and last month Sgt Blackman’s conviction was reduced from murder to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.
Agreeing he had combat stress, appeal judges cut his sentence from life to seven years, paving the way for his release.
Last night thriller writer Frederick Forsyth, a staunch supporter, said: ‘It has been a long, hard slog to get justice for Marine Sergeant Al Blackman. A vengeful military judicial Establishment fought tooth and nail to keep in jail as long as possible this fighting soldier who had laid his life on the line for this country more times than his chair-bound persecutors had had lunch at their Mayfair clubs.’
He also praised Daily Mail readers, saying: ‘Once again it was the great British people who secured justice at last, despite the fat cats. So to all of you: well done.’