MARINE A‘KILLED 30 OF QUEEN’S ENEMIES’
As barrister pleads for soldier’s freedom, he reveals bravery of the man he calls last casualty of a failed war
SERGEANT Alexander Blackman killed more than 30 of the ‘Queen’s enemies’ during his service in the Royal Marines, a court heard yesterday.
Judges were told he had made one mistake in an otherwise exemplary military career and had remained cool under fire hundreds of times.
He had snapped only once, when he shot the wounded Taliban fighter for which he was jailed for life.
The details emerged as the Court of Appeal was urged to release ‘truly the last casualty of a failed war’.
Sergeant Blackman – known as Marine A – had his conviction for murder quashed last week and downgraded to manslaughter on the basis of combat stress.
But to the disappointment of dozens of ex-Marines in the public gallery yesterday, the five judges who are considering his sentencing postponed their ruling until Tuesday. His wife Claire said last night: ‘He is disappointed, we both are, but when you have had as many ups and downs as we have, you get used to the setbacks.’
The Marine’s lawyer Jonathan Goldberg QC told the sentencing hearing that the commando had spent his career ‘in the very front line of battle’. ‘He has risked being killed on literally hundreds of occasions
‘Such quiet heroism is incredible’
when he has come under enemy fire,’ he said. ‘He has never known life behind a military desk as have some – including some critics – and he has only known military life at the sharp end. He estimates having himself personally and lawfully had to kill the Queen’s enemies over 30 times on the battlefield.
‘Several military armoured vehicles in which he was travelling have been blown up under him. He has dodged bullets on countless occasions, grenades have been thrown at him and he has had narrow escapes with death too numerous to count.’
But his ‘tour from hell’ of Afghanistan in 2011 stretched Blackman to the limit, judges were told, and the ‘quite exceptional’ pressure he was under triggered a combat stress disorder which led the Marine to kill.
Mr Goldberg said: ‘He is truly the last casualty of a failed war. What good is there in keeping him in prison? A killing brought about by mental illness which was itself caused by combat stress is not a coldblooded execution. He is not a danger to the public, nor is there any risk of repetition.’
He urged the judges to release the sergeant immediately on the basis of the three and a half years he has already spent in prison. More than 30,000 Daily Mail readers raised £810,000 to fund the legal challenge which resulted in last week’s quashing of his conviction. Blackman’s remote outpost in Helmand Province was perceived to be ‘the most dangerous square mile on earth’.
He and the 15 men under his command were fatigued, sleep-deprived, overworked and under-resourced. On patrols, they faced the added psychological agony of knowing every step could detonate one of the Taliban’s hidden improvised bombs.
Mr Goldberg said: ‘They knew each step could be their last.
‘And yet Sgt Blackman, who has no children, would insist on going out on more patrols than were his fair share in order to spare so far as possible the men under him who did have children. Such quiet heroism is
simply incredible.’ He added: ‘ This offence could not have happened except for the horrors of war on a battlefield which caused a psychiatric illness, which went untreated and undetected because the system went wrong.’
Sgt Blackman, who shot the mortally-wounded Taliban fighter in a cornfield, was lambasted at his court martial for giving the insurgent ‘ no chance of survival’.
But the appeal court heard that fresh evidence from pathologist Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl found it was ‘highly likely’ he would have died soon anyway. Mr Goldberg added: ‘ According to the pathologist the reality is in any event that he probably had minutes at best to live.’
He stressed he was not arguing it was a mercy killing. But in shooting the insurgent, Blackman had ‘put him out of his agony a little earlier than was anyway inevitable’. Mr Goldberg said: ‘If it were not for one single blot, I would be able to say of my client that he is a hero amongst men and a fine example for the youth of this country to emulate.
‘Many a great man would be hard pressed to find so many find so many fine people to say such wonderful things about them.’ Earlier, Blackman’s wife Claire had bravely taken to the witness stand to praise her husband’s ‘spirit in the face of adversity’. Looking composed in a black skirt suit, she told the courtroom: ‘He is an incredibly kind, thoughtful and generous person, the first to help anybody in need. He is very calm, warm and good-humoured’.
And she revealed his dismissal from his beloved Royal Marines had been the toughest punishment of all.
Mrs Blackman, 45, an NHS trust executive, said: ‘The arrest and conviction were a huge shock but the dismissal with disgrace was the hardest to bear. I always joke that if you cut my husband in half, it would say “Royal Marines” all the way through him. It has been his life, his love, a career that he excelled at, and to take that away so abruptly has been the hardest thing.’
She said he had already received numerous job offers – and would also welcome a role within the Royal Marines once released.
‘Calm, warm and good-humoured’