Show mercy to a man tainted only by war

AT the start of this crucial week for Sgt Alexander Blackman, in which he may get his first taste of freedom for more than three years, his former commanding officer sums up everything this paper and fair-minded readers feel about his case.

Describing ‘Marine A’ as a ‘caring and devoted family man’, Lieutenant Colonel Simon Chapman says in a letter to be shown to a bail hearing, perhaps as early as Wednesday: ‘Fundamentally he is not a bad man. In fact, in almost every respect he is a normal citizen tainted only by the impact of war.’

At no stage has the Mail condoned Sgt Blackman’s killing of a mortally wounded Taliban insurgent on an Afghanistan battlefield. Nor has he himself sought to excuse his appalling lapse of judgment in that split second in 2001.

But like our generous, commonsense readers who contributed £800,000 to his appeal – and the four impeccable backers offering £50,000 each to guarantee his bail – we believe his life sentence for murder was grossly disproportionate, given the intense strain he was under on that ‘tour from hell’.

Indeed, Sgt Blackman’s loyalty to Mail readers is to be cited as one of many reasons to trust him with bail before his appeal next summer or autumn.

It is not only for him and his wife Claire that we hope he will be home for their wedding anniversary on Saturday. It’s for justice – and the morale of all our armed forces, on whom our country depends.