Marine Alevander Blackmans wife says he does not deserve 'dismissal in disgrace' as judges says he must spend one more weekend in jail
Alexander Blackman was suffering from an 'abnormality of mental functioning' during the 2011 killing, judges ruled CREDIT:
By ANDREW PARSONS
Daily Telegraph
24 MARCH 2017 •
Alexander Blackman will spend another weekend in prison after an appeal court hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice delayed its decision until Tuesday.
Supporters - who had gathered waving flags outside court - had hoped Blackman could walk free today after his murder conviction for shooting an insurgent was previously reduced to manslaughter.
A panel of five judges at the Court Martial Appeal Court are due to sentence Blackman for diminished responsibility manslaughter following the recent decision by the court to overturn his murder conviction for the 2011 killing.
However the judges announced after hearing an hour or so of submissions - including new evidence from a pathologist that the already injured insurgent "probably had minutes at best to live" due to the severity of his wounds - that they wished to further consider the matter before re-sentencing.
It was also announced in court that the day before the hearing, Brigadier Richard Spencer of the Royal Marines telephoned leading counsel to explain that Blackman may automatically remain a Royal Marine as a result of his murder conviction being quashed.
Speaking on the court steps after the decision, Claire Blackman, who spoke on court as a character witness for her husband, said, "We are obviously disappointed not to have a decision today. But we understand the judges wish to consider this important matter with great care. We will patiently await their ruling."
In court Claire Blackman said she had only been together for four and a half years with her husband for the duration of their eight year marriage because he has either been fighting for his country or in jail.
"He is incredibly kind, thoughtful and generous," she said. "He is the first to help anybody in need.
The possibility of rejoining the Royal Marines would be "a real positive to him", she said. "If not, we have already received numerous offers of employment for him. "
"The arrest and conviction was a huge shock," she added. "But it was the dismissal in disgrace that was the hardest aspect of all to bear. I have often said if you cut my husband in half you would see a Royal Marine all the way through him."
Blackman, 42, from Taunton in Somerset, watched the proceedings via video link from prison.
Jonathan Goldberg, making submissions in mitigation, told Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and the other judges that "at the forefront of our submission is the plea that he should be released today".
He said that "the incarceration of almost three and a half years which he has already served is already too much for his crime".
The judges had previously ruled that Blackman was suffering from an "abnormality of mental functioning" at the time of the incident.
When the court overturned the murder conviction, the judges found that the incident was not a "cold-blooded execution" as a court martial had earlier concluded, but the result of a mental illness - an "adjustment disorder".
Blackman was convicted of murder in November 2013 by a court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years.
That term was later reduced to eight years on appeal because of the combat stress disorder he was suffering from at the time of the killing in Helmand province while serving with Plymouth-based 42 Commando.
The judges said that Blackman had been "an exemplary soldier before his deployment to Afghanistan in March 2011", but had "suffered from quite exceptional stressors" during that deployment.
They found that his ability to "form a rational judgment" was "substantially impaired".
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.