My husband was given a one-way ticket to hell
Wife of Marine killed serving with Blackman backs the Mail
HUGGED by his daughters and cradling his baby girl, this is sergeant Barry weston on his final visit home before he was killed by a roadside bomb in afghanistan.
yesterday, his proud widow Joanne shared the picture – together with another taken on the infamous ‘tour from hell’ – to show her unequivocal support for the campaign for justice for his comrade, jailed royal Marine sergeant alexander Blackman.
the haunting final warzone photograph shows sgt weston slumped against the wall of an afghan hut with a faraway look in his eyes. Days later he was blown up leading a patrol against taliban fighters.
sgt weston and sgt Blackman were both fighting on the front line during the disastrous 2011 tour of Helmand province, enduring daily taliban attacks while isolated, let down by the chain of command, under-manned and under-resourced.
It ended with sgt weston, 40, coming home in a casket, and with sgt Blackman, 41, jailed for life for shooting a dying taliban insurgent.
Mrs weston, 35, who lives in plymstock, Devon, with daughters Jasmine, 12, poppy, ten, and rose, four, said: ‘we can’t fix Baz now, but perhaps we can try and help fix alexander Blackman. we can be the lights to guide him home.
‘How can anyone judge him until they’ve walked a mile in his shoes? the court martial which handed down that decision on Blackman should have been made to go through everything he had. If they had they would never have convicted him.’
sgt Blackman’s new appeal against his murder conviction will focus on the extraordinary pressures the Marines were under when he ‘snapped’ and shot the already-wounded insurgent in september 2011. a Mail investigation has exposed a secret Ministry of Defence report admitting commanders pushed troops too hard and utterly failed to notice their ‘psychological strain and fatigue’.
Mrs weston, who proudly displays the final photo of her husband in afghanistan on her sitting room wall, said: ‘ Baz told me I didn’t understand what it was like for him and all the others out there. I think this picture gives me some idea. He said his deployment was a one-way ticket. tragically, he was right.’
sgt weston was killed by a taliban bomb while leading a patrol on august 30, 2011. He was one of seven Marines who died on the ‘tour from hell’, during which taliban insurgents hung limbs of mutilated British servicemen from trees.
Mrs weston said: ‘I knew they were overstretched out there. you could pick it up in the odd conversations we had. He said it was all right for those back at camp Bastion. they had decent food and they were getting a good night’s sleep, whereas the others in the forward bases were exhausted, eating dreadful rations and endlessly out on patrol.’
the last time his family – includ- ing parents roy and pam weston – saw him alive was during a surprise fortnight’s leave midway through the tour. the photo with his daughters was taken the day he flew back out to afghanistan.
His father roy, 75, said: ‘when Baz was home, that was not the son I knew or recognised ... I knew the difference between a man who was approaching a trip with trepidation and one who was struggling to cope with the pressure.
‘He was stressed out. He was on a very short fuse. It was clearly a constant struggle for survival day after day out there, and the responsibility which was placed on him as a humble sergeant – although he was very experienced – was way beyond the responsibility he should have been shouldering.’
Mrs weston said her worst memory from her husband’s last period of leave was when he woke up in the night, desperately confused in the darkness about where he was.
referring to the MoD’s censored Operation telemeter report admitting failings by commanders, her father-in-law added: ‘the chain of command let Baz down and it let alexander Blackman down.
‘If that is what this report shows then we should be told.’
Last week, ministers caved in to
‘The lights to guide him home’ ‘Constant struggle for survival’
demands to release the report on a confidential basis to sgt Blackman and his wife claire’s lawyers.
Mrs weston said: ‘I would be interested in reading the Operation telemeter report although I don’t think the families of the men who died will ever get to see it.
‘the important thing is claire Blackman and her legal team will, though. Her husband deserves a medal for what he went through, not to be thrown in prison.
‘If there is nothing to hide, then why did it take so long for the MoD to come clean? why did it take this campaign to achieve that?’