Court delays decision on bail for Marine who shot Taleban fighter

Claire Blackman, wife of Sergeant Alexander Blackman, leaves court in London yesterday. The high court delayed deciding on a bail application to release the former Royal Marine in order for him to appeal his life sentence for shooting a Taleban insurgent in Afghanistan in 2011

A Royal Marine jailed for life for killing an injured Afghan fighter has been refused bail but could still be allowed home to spend Christmas with his family.

Sergeant Alexander Blackman was jailed for ten years for shooting dead a Taleban insurgent in Helmand province in 2011.

Blackman shot the injured man in the chest at close range, before quoting a phrase from Shakespeare.

The shooting was captured on a camera mounted on the helmet of another marine.

Blackman, of Taunton, Somerset, denied murder but was found guilty in November 2013. He was convicted by court martial and sentenced to life.

His lawyers yesterday tried to convince Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and Mr Justice Openshaw at the High Court to allow him home for Christmas after his conviction and sentence were referred for review. But Mr Justice Openshaw refused bail.

The case has been adjourned until next Wednesday, when the high Court will hear whether the Crown will oppose the psychiatric evidence that Blackman was suffering a mental disorder at the time of the killing.