Sergeant Alexander Blackman, a loyal Royal Marine, and his family, have been betrayed by ‘The System’ (the Ministry of Defence) whose duty was and is to protect them. While serving in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, leading a foot patrol, Sergeant Blackman fired a bullet weighing 15gm into the body of an insurgent he believed dead, killed by a 30mm explosive or fragmenting shell weighing 236gm, around 9 ounces. ‘The System’ decided that the insurgent may not have been dead when Sergeant Blackman squeezed the trigger and that a charge of murder was warranted. This led to a prejudiced court martial finding him guilty, dismissing him from Her Majesty’s Service, cancelling the pension rights his long and honourable service had earned, and sending him to prison for ten years (later reduced to eight years). The contributors to this book attribute the verdict to the hostility ‘The System’ consistently shows to those who wear uniform, and to the deficit of honesty and competence within the Ministry of Defence. The evidence the book presents for this harsh verdict is truly astonishing.
Even if the insurgent had survived the impact of a half-pound explosive or fragmenting shell and had been still alive, the court should have accepted the evidence that Sergeant Blackman was suffering from severe stress owed to the daily repetition of patrols sent out as bait for Taliban IED-ambushes and with orders to kill any attackers appearing in their sights. These patrols had no air cover of the type provided by cheap, light aircraft such as the Austers, Pipers. Taylorcraft and Bird Dogs used in earlier wars, although the aircraft designed to replace the Auster had been available from the start of the Helmand problem, had been highly commended by the Ministry’s own test pilots at Boscombe Down, and had been requested by the Chief of the Defence Staff (who had earlier commanded ISAF and had flown in the aircraft, unlike the clerks in Whitehall who consistently rejected it).
The accumulation of stress that the absence of air cover magnifies was to have been part of the evidence to be given by Sergeant Blackman’s Commanding Officer, but ‘The System’ stepped in to prevent his appearance, causing him to resign his commission, a huge sacrifice for a career officer to make in the recognition of a miscarriage of justice.
The book treats the court martial of Sergeant Blackman as an avatar of what is wrong inside the Ministry of Defence, argues that change must come, and that full restitution and substantial damages be awarded him. That this is more than a miscarriage of justice, that it is a deliberate perversion of justice, is clearly shown. The book should be widely read, especially those fighting for a pardon.
Even if the insurgent had survived the impact of a half-pound explosive or fragmenting shell and had been still alive, the court should have accepted the evidence that Sergeant Blackman was suffering from severe stress owed to the daily repetition of patrols sent out as bait for Taliban IED-ambushes and with orders to kill any attackers appearing in their sights. These patrols had no air cover of the type provided by cheap, light aircraft such as the Austers, Pipers. Taylorcraft and Bird Dogs used in earlier wars, although the aircraft designed to replace the Auster had been available from the start of the Helmand problem, had been highly commended by the Ministry’s own test pilots at Boscombe Down, and had been requested by the Chief of the Defence Staff (who had earlier commanded ISAF and had flown in the aircraft, unlike the clerks in Whitehall who consistently rejected it).
The accumulation of stress that the absence of air cover magnifies was to have been part of the evidence to be given by Sergeant Blackman’s Commanding Officer, but ‘The System’ stepped in to prevent his appearance, causing him to resign his commission, a huge sacrifice for a career officer to make in the recognition of a miscarriage of justice.
The book treats the court martial of Sergeant Blackman as an avatar of what is wrong inside the Ministry of Defence, argues that change must come, and that full restitution and substantial damages be awarded him. That this is more than a miscarriage of justice, that it is a deliberate perversion of justice, is clearly shown. The book should be widely read, especially those fighting for a pardon.
