Navy

Appeal Result For 'Marine A' Conviction Challenge Will "Take Time"

The prosecution at the appeal of Alexander Blackman, has accepted the former marine was suffering a known mental health condition when he shot and killed a badly injured Taliban fighter in Afghanistan.

But it argued that did not necessarily amount to diminished responsibility.

The appeal hearing has been completed after two days, but the 5 senior judges say it will take some time for them to decide whether or not the murder conviction is unsafe.

Alexander Blackman's wife Claire, listening intently in court through the two days of evidence.

Blackman himself has remained in Prison in Wiltshire, appearing by video link and speaking only to confirm his name, and that he can hear the proceedings.

The couple and their supporters don't know how many days, or perhaps weeks they will have to wait for the 5 judges to decide whether the murder conviction stands or falls and what might happen next.

A graphic account of the conditions faced by a Royal Marine at the time he shot an injured Afghan fighter was given yesterday at the start of his battle to overturn his murder conviction.

At the time of the 2011 incident, Blackman was serving in Helmand province with Plymouth-based 42 Commando.

Mr Goldberg told the Court Martial Appeal Court that the conditions were "austere" and a "breeding ground" for mental health problems.

Describing the Taliban as "ruthless and cunning", he said there were shooting incidents on a regular basis, sometimes daily.

Blackman had "endured" the loss of a young company officer "with whom he had been on very close terms" and had mentored.

More: ''Marine A' Bail Application Delayed'

Mr Goldberg said Blackman himself was almost killed in a grenade attack. That must, he said, have "left mental scars". He told the judges:

"Only those who have been on the front line can know what it is really like".

It was a recognised feature of mental illness that many people do not "recognise symptoms in themselves". The QC added:

"Mr Blackman's nature is to be very reserved. He is a sort of John Wayne character".

Blackman's case has been referred to the court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the independent body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice.

The CCRC announced it had concluded that a number of new issues, including fresh evidence relating to Blackman's mental state, "raise a real possibility" that the Court Martial Appeal Court "will now quash Mr Blackman's murder conviction".

The conviction challenge is being heard by Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, Sir Brian Leveson, Lady Justice Hallett, Mr Justice Openshaw and Mr Justice Sweeney.

Blackman was convicted in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years.

In May 2014, the Court Martial Appeal Court rejected a conviction challenge, but reduced the minimum term to eight years because of the combat stress disorder he was suffering from at the time of the shooting.

Blackman shot the insurgent, who had been seriously injured in an attack by an Apache helicopter, in the chest at close range with a 9mm pistol before quoting a phrase from Shakespeare as the man convulsed and died in front of him:

"There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil, you c***. It's nothing you wouldn't do to us".

He then turned to his comrades and said:

"Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention".

The shooting was captured on a camera mounted on the helmet of another Royal Marine.

During his trial, Blackman, who denied murder and was known at that stage as Marine A, said he believed the victim was already dead and he was taking out his anger on a corpse.

He was "dismissed with disgrace" from the Royal Marines after serving with distinction for 15 years, including tours of Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

One of the grounds of appeal is that the new psychiatric evidence would have provided him with the "partial defence of diminished responsibility".