The Goose Green ‘mercy killing’... why SAS veteran MUST be cleared
THE case involving Sergeant Colin Maclachlan is not the first time a so-called mercy killing involving British troops has been at the centre of a military inquiry.
A British Army sergeant was investigated after shooting dead a mortally wounded Argentinian prisoner of war during the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict.
The soldier, whose name has never been made public, killed the PoW to end his agony after he was badly burned in an explosion which happened as he and other prisoners worked to clear debris from a battlefield.
A landmine or grenade exploded, starting a fire in a nearby sheep shearing shed, and the wounded Argentine soldier stumbled into the flames.
The British sergeant desperately tried to rescue the prisoner from the inferno but was forced back by the searing heat.
Rather than watch the Argentine soldier burn to death in front of him, the sergeant picked up a rifle and fired ‘three or four shots’ at the prisoner to end his agony.
The incident happened on June 1, 1982, following the pivotal battle of Goose Green. The soldier and other eyewitnesses were questioned at length by an Army Board of Inquiry on their return to Britain following the liberation of the Islands in June 1982.
Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine told the House of Commons in April 1983 that the investigation had cleared the sergeant of any wrongdoing under the Geneva Convention.
He said: ‘The full results of all these inquiries have been studied by the competent legal authorities, who have concluded that no proceedings (whether in a civil court or by court martial or through military disciplinary proceedings) should be instituted against any individual involved.’
Comparing the Falklands incident to his own case last night, Maclachlan said: ‘If you had let that guy burn to death, you should be held accountable. Why are you watching a guy burn to death? Just think how ridiculous that is. The crueller thing would be to continue their suffering.’
Last year, a retired senior Royal Marines commander also revealed he had once put a wounded man ‘out of his misery’ on the battlefield.
Lieutenant Colonel Ewen Southby-Tailyour, 73, said he had given a lethal overdose of morphine to a dying comrade. He administered the lethal dose to his Arab Sergeant Major during the Dhofar War on the Arabian Peninsula in 1968, while on secondment to the Sultan of Oman’s forces.
Last night, Lord West, a former security minister and head of the Royal Navy, said cases like Goose Green demonstrate why the MoD needs to ‘show caution’ in investigating Maclachlan.
He said: ‘War is an ugly and nasty business. People are under immense pressure and often they have to make decisions very quickly in dreadful situations. I’m not saying people can break the law, but we have to be very careful not to judge people now in the cold light of day for decisions they make in the heat of battle.’
Tory MP Richard Benyon added: ‘It serves no purpose whatsoever to rake up allegations against serving or retired servicemen, especially now that so much time has passed and the evidence trail is cold.’