Casualty of war: Royal Marine who murdered Taliban fighter jailed for life

                                       

A Royal Marine who murdered an insurgent in Afghanistan said last night he was devastated over the decision to jail him for life.

Sergeant Alexander Blackman, 39, was told he would serve at least ten years for murdering the Afghan national in Helmand province in 2011. He has also been dismissed from the Marines in disgrace. 

But yesterday his commanding officer pledged his ‘full support’ for his comrade, saying Blackman had been ‘tainted’ by experiences described as ‘hell on earth’.

Last night a huge wave of support was swelling for the first British serviceman to be convicted of murder on active service abroad since the Second World War.

One Facebook group has nearly 30,000 supporters and is calling for Blackman to be released. Another group has more than 10,000 followers.

In court, Blackman stood tall in his dress uniform and saluted for one last time as Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett passed judgment. His face impassive, he turned sharply to his left and marched out of the court. 

The 6ft 3in commando was told by the country’s most senior military judge that his ‘brutal and savage’ crime had ‘betrayed’ Britain’s armed forces and ‘tarnished their reputation’. And he had ‘put at risk’ the lives of other UK troops and civilians by increasing the likelihood that Islamic extremists would carry out revenge attacks.

In a withering sentencing statement, Judge Blackett said: ‘You have provided ammunition to the terrorists whose propaganda portrays the British presence in Afghanistan as part of a war on Islam in which civilians are arbitrarily killed.