Murder ‘cover-up’ Marines in the clear
ROYAL Marines who agreed to cover up the murder of a badly wounded Taliban captive have been cleared to continue their careers without any sanction.
The Marines watched as their commander Sergeant Alexander Blackman, 39, shot a defenceless prisoner at close range and told him to: ‘Shuffle off this mortal coil, it’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us.’
Moments later, Sgt Blackman agreed a secret pact with his colleagues not to tell anyone about the shooting because it breached the Geneva Convention.
As a result, the incident in September 2011 was not investigated until the following year, when military police found footage of the shooting recorded by Cpl Christopher Watson, 31, on a helmet-mounted camera.
In 2012, Sgt Blackman, Cpl Watson and Marine Jack Hammond were charged with murder and appeared at a court martial the following year. Two other Marines were also accused of murder but their charges were dropped before the hearing.
While Cpl Watson and Marine Hammond were cleared of murder, Sgt Blackman was found guilty and received a ten-year prison sentence, reduced to eight years after an appeal last week.
It had been expected that Cpl Watson and Marine Hammond would face administrative action. But defence sources said last night that Cpl Watson, Marine Hammond and the two other Marines originally charged with murder, will face no further action.
A MoD spokesperson said: ‘This incident has been subject to a criminal investigation and a court martial held in public. We are now conducting a review.’