At last, the witch-hunt is over for hero Major

MAJOR Robert Campbell is the kind of man we civvies like to imagine leading our Armed Forces. A fine soldier, he has fought alongside his men in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a bomb disposal expert, he was wounded in Afghanistan and awarded gallantry and good conduct honours. He suffers from PTSD, hearing loss and physical injuries.

Yet this man of duty and decency was hounded for 17 years by eight separate inquiries into the death of Iraqi teenager Saeed Shabram.

Some of these spurious actions involved the now- disgraced and struck- off lawyer Phil Shiner, who made thousands of false war crimes allegations against British soldiers.

The MoD believed unsubstantiated claims that Campbell drowned Shabram in 2003. This week, a court found that he had in fact tried for 40 minutes to rescue the young man, and that witnesses ‘had colluded and were dishonest’ as long ago as 2006.

Yet Major Campbell was persecuted for 14 more years. Why?

This newspaper has fought tirelessly to clear all those wrongly accused of so- called war atrocities through our long-running campaign, Witch-hunt Against Our Heroes. And Campbell’s record speaks for itself. After the alleged murder — for which the MoD paid £100,000 in compensation to Shabram’s family while investigations continued — Campbell rose to the rank of major in 2014.

Now he has finally been cleared of all charges, Baroness Hallett ruling that there never was any reliable evidence he or anyone under his command was responsible for the death.

But at what cost to this fine soldier? He has been tortured by his treatment at the hands of the MoD.

‘I am angry that it took eight investigations, 17 years and destroyed my career,’ he said. ‘We are in a situation where anybody can accuse you of anything and no matter how absurd it is, nobody is going to help you.’

He is suing the MoD, saying it ‘abandoned’ him. I applaud this and hope he sets up a crowd-funding appeal to pay for his legal costs. I shall be the first to contribute.

How appalling that the MoD has become almost a greater enemy to our troops than the foes against whom they are sent into battle.