Boost for Marine A as prosecutors admit he was mentally ill when he killed an Afghan insurgent

A Royal Marine jailed for murdering a wounded Taliban fighter received a boost to his bid to have his conviction overturned after prosecutors admitted for the first time that he was mentally ill at the time of the killing.

Alexander Blackman, who was jailed in 2013, is attempting to have his murder conviction quashed, after three eminent psychiatrists agreed he was suffering from a condition known as an “adjustment disorder” when he shot the mortally wounded insurgent in the chest.

The Court Martial Appeal Court heard he had been failed by “shockingly bad” leadership, and felt he had been abandoned by senior officers in a “ghastly” command post in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, where marines feared that if they were captured they would be scalped, skinned alive, castrated and crucified.

Blackman argues that the horrors of his service in Afghanistan, coupled with factors including a family history of mental illness, pushed him to a “breaking point” at which he developed a mental condition that substantially impaired his ability to think rationally.

Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, admitted for the first time that the marine was mentally ill at the time of the killing, telling the court: “The evidence is unequivocal, that he has an adjustment disorder”.

But he said the court had to decide, “did it cause what happened?”.

He told the court that video footage of the killing showed that he “retained a sophisticated ability to plan ahead; an awareness of his circumstances; a real concern for his own protection and career to avoid detection; and a considered and deliberate approach to executing the suspected insurgent”.

The court heard that Blackman’s commanding officer for the majority of the six-month tour, Colonel Ewen Murchison, had only visited the marines’ remote camp on one or two occasions, leaving the marine to feel like his superiors “didn’t care”.

Colonel Oliver Lee, who took over command eight days before Blackman shot the Taliban fighter, said he visited bases every two weeks. Another marine, Regimental Sergeant Major Stephen Moran, said the lack of contact from senior officers could lead troops to “become feral”.

Colonel Lee, who resigned his commission after being stopped from giving evidence at Blackman’s original trial, told the court: “At the heart of these factors is my view that the leadership and oversight of Sergeant Blackman by his commanders Lieutenant Colonel Murchison and Major Fisher was shockingly bad, and directly causal to Sergeant Blackman’s conduct.”

The panel of five judges were shown pictures of Blackman’s base, camp Omar.

They were told that the command post was under-manned, forcing the marinesto patrol twice a day, rather than once, and at one stage had a door that did not lock, leaving them in fear that they might be killed in their sleep.

Chris Terrill, a documentary maker who was embedded with marines at a base less than three miles away, said: “We all knew likewise that the fate of any man captured by the Taliban was to be skinned alive, scalping, castration and crucifixion, as had happened on a previous tour to a young soldier (not a marine) who had been foolish enough to walk out of another camp in Nad e Ali North one night."

Mr Terrill said that marines from the company he was with had to “go out to try and find the limbs of a young marine who had been killed by an IED the day before”.

He told the court: “The patrol discovered one of his legs strung up in a tree and booby-trapped. The Taliban, always trying to goad the marines, knew that they always search for all the remains of their comrades to include them in the coffin returning to the UK.”

Jonathan Goldberg QC, representing Blackman, told the court: “No one can know the terror they must have felt.”

The panel of five judges reserved judgment.  They appeared to rule out the prospect of a retrial, asking Mr Goldberg whether his client would consent to have his sentence substituted for manslaughter, if they allowed the appeal.

In order to be eligible for a conviction of manslaughter by way of diminished responsibility, Blackman, who has always claimed he thought the man was dead, must accept that he intended to kill the wounded fighter.

Mr Goldberg said that if the court “was minded to substitute” the murder sentence for manslaughter, Blackman would accept that he intended to kill the insurgent, and would “accept the consequences in full”.

Alexander Blackman Marine A timeline