Court martial panel ‘was split 5-2 over guilty verdict’

AlexAnder Blackman was found guilty by only five of the seven jurors trying him, it was claimed yesterday.

The other two officers on the court martial panel are said to have come under ‘very considerable pressure’ to change their not guilty verdicts.

It meant the royal Marine sergeant was convicted by a 5-2 majority, which would not be adequate in a civilian trial. If 12 jurors are split by a similar ratio at crown court there is a hung jury – leading either to a retrial or the charges being dropped.

But the different rules of a court martial meant just five guilty votes were enough to see Blackman convicted of murder and jailed for life.

After he was sentenced, members of the panel broke with the rules and saluted the condemned man, recalls Blackman’s wife Claire.

‘They saluted and let it be known afterwards it was because they thought Al was a decent man,’ she said.

Frederick Forsyth, who is spearheading the campaign for justice for Blackman, said: ‘Honourable men do not salute a perjurer and a murderer.

‘They were sending a message and what they were saying was “We’ve done what we were told to do”.

‘This court martial, in my view, stank from top to bottom.’

The best-selling thriller writer alleges there was behind-the-scenes meddling by top brass to fix the result of the case. He said: ‘Two to five was the verdict. I know this to be true, I cannot reveal how. This is shaky by any measure.

‘One of the seven who voted not guilty says he and another man were put under very considerable pressure to change their view, and to conform to the guilty verdict they believed was what was required.

‘The question is, who was applying this pressure and who was giving the orders for a guilty verdict?’

Any suggestion of pressure on a jury in a crown court would immediately cause the trial to be halted.

last night Baron Burnett, a liberal democrat peer and former royal Marine who has visited Blackman in prison, said: ‘If it were 5-2 in a civilian court, this would not be sufficient to convict somebody.

‘When did a court martial last try a serious murder case? They do not have much experience in these matters. The court martial system is flawed and needs to change.

‘I have been told that a royal Marine colonel was telephoned by a member of the panel after the hearing and told: “We were under terrific political pressure”.’

The path to justice for Blackman now leads via the Criminal Cases review Commission to the Courts Martial Appeal Court. The CCrC is the statutory agency set up to put right miscarriages of justice.

It cannot overturn a conviction or sentence, but it does have the power to refer a case back to the appeal court if it believes there is a ‘real possibility’ it might be quashed there.

Spearheaded by leading defence QC Jonathan Goldberg, his new legal team will first submit a lengthy written report for the CCrC to consider.

They intend to offer fresh evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder due to combat fatigue,

Meanwhile, it has been claimed that the seven-strong jury deciding Blackman’s fate were mainly desk-based sailors. It is understood that only two of the royal navy and royal Marine officers on the panel had much ‘on the ground’ experience of the savage fighting in Afghanistan.

Frederick Forsyth, the author leading the Blackman campaign, said they ‘cannot have begun to imagine the hell of Helmand’.

The judge, advocate general Jeff Blackett, worked in the supplies branch of the navy and then pay and pensions, before going into the legal section of the services.

The president of the panel of jurors was lt Col Christopher Holmes of navy command headquarters. Other members were: lt Cmdr love of the defence equipment and support centre; lt Cmdr nick Cory of the joint signals unit; lt evans of HMS Collingwood, an office building in Portsmouth; and Warrant Officer Gowers of an assessment centre in Portsmouth.

More battlefield experience came with Major Adam Whitmarsh of 43 Commando royal Marines who three years ago was commended by the Queen for hunting down Somali pirates. His team helped free a Pakistani dhow and an Italian vessel. The 30 captured Somalis were sent for trial in Italy and the Seychelles.

Major Whitmarsh had also served in northern Ireland and Iraq and completed two tours of Afghanistan.

The seventh panel member was Captain Ben Sercombe, a royal Marine and commander of Britain’s amphibious forces for the past two years. He has served in Afghanistan, but has also found time to be a champion of the royal Marines Angling Association.

‘It stank from top

to bottom’