Soldier in court over fracas with friend who died two weeks later
A SCOTTISH soldier who saw a comrade killed by a Taliban bomb was court-martialled for allegedly slapping him two weeks before his death.
Corporal David Gillies, 29, was dragged through the military courts even though his alleged victim – Fusilier Samuel Flint – was killed more than two years ago.
Cpl Gillies was with Fusilier Flint when a home- made bomb struck their armoured vehicle.
He saw the 21-year-old and two others killed and received terrible injuries himself.
But he was prosecuted when Fusilier Flint’s family complained about the alleged slap a year after his funeral.
Even though the key witness was no longer alive, the Service Prosecuting Authority arrested and charged Cpl Gillies, who denied the charge.
On Thursday, the corporal – whose own blast injuries were so severe he was medically discharged after 12 years’ service – was acquitted.
The case is estimated to have cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds.
Colonel Richard Kemp, who led troops in Afghanistan, said: ‘ The Service Prosecuting Authority’s judgment seems bizarre and even to the layman it is obvious that there was vi r t ual l y no pr o s pect of conviction.’
Cpl Gillies, a father of three from Glasgow, and Fusilier Flint, from Blackpool, served in the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland.
In 2013, they were deployed to Helmand. In April, they clashed in a lookout at a patrol base.
Fusilier Flint was supposed to be on watch with a machine- gun. But Lt Col Graham Coombes, prosecuting, told the court that Cpl Gillies was annoyed that he kept being distracted.
He said: ‘He became enraged at Flint not doing what he was supposed to do. Flint turned to him, pointing his finger in his f ace, and Gillies claims he slapped his hand out of the way
‘No prospect of
conviction’
and grabbed him by the body armour.’
Two weeks later, the pair and five comrades were on patrol when their personnel carrier was blown 20ft in the air by a bomb.
Cpl Gillies survived but Fusilier Flint, Corporal William Savage, 30, and Private Robert Hetherington, 25, died.
Lance Corporal Martin Mur- phy, who relieved Fusilier Flint, told the trial: ‘He had a cut under his right eye. He said Cpl Gillies had punched him.’
But Cpl Gillies told the court in Colchester, Essex: ‘I caught him looking round at us instead of looking out. I told him he was the first line of defence, responsible for the safety of the people in the camp.
‘He snapped, putting his finger in my face. He was telling me I couldn’t talk to him like that, that he had kids and I was treating him like a kid. He was pointing in my face.
‘I pushed his hand away from my face and grabbed his body armour and he grabbed mine before we were pushed apart.
‘I definitely did not punch or slap him.’
Sergeant David Boxwell, who intervened, said there was no slap.
But Fusilier Flint’s father David Broughton said the acquittal was ‘a f****** farce’.