Court of Appeal
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| Author | Elizabeth Stuart-Cole |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022018317722246 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
Case Note
Court of Appeal
Blackman (Marine A): Inculpable or Incapable?
RvBlackman (Alexander Wayne) [2017] EWCA Crim 190
Keywords
Murder, substantially impaired, diminished responsibility, abnormality of mental functioning, medical expert,
psychiatric diagnosis
On the 15th September 2011, an injured Taliban insurgent was killed by Royal Marines in Helmand
Province, Afghanistan. Three Royal Marines were tried anonymously by court martial on 23 October
2013; two were acquitted on 8November; the third, named as Alexander Blackman, (an Acting Colour
Sergeant), was found guilty of murder in contravention of s. 42 of the Armed Forces Act 2006. Blackman
was the first British soldier to be convicted of a war-related murder, while serving overseas, since the
Second World War.
In September 2011, an insurgent attacked Command Post (CP) Talaanda using small arms fire. In
response, an Apache helicopter from Camp Bastion attended and a total of 139 rounds of 130 mm
ammunition was fired at the insurgent. A foot patrol, led by Blackman, was ordered to carry out a
‘damage battle assessment’ of the area and report findings. Unofficial video footage recorded the patrol
finding an insurgent badly injured but alive. The marines dragged him to the side of the field where
Blackman instructed ‘right, get him closer in so PGSS [Persistent Ground Surveillance System] can’t see
what we’re doing to him’ (at [21](v )). One Marine stated: ‘I’ll put on e in his head if you want?’
Blackman responded: ‘No, not in his head, ‘cause that’ll be ( ...) obvious’ (at [21](vi)). The cameraman
replied: ‘We’ll patch him (with) an FFD [First Field Dressing] ( ...) that’ll do won’t it?’ (at [22](i)).
Another marine asked the position of the helicopter to which the defendant replied ‘He’s over there and
he can ( ...) see us’ ([22](ii)), before radioing command suggesting the insurgent may be dead. The
cameraman bent over the injured man with a field dressing saying, ‘( ...) I cannot believe I’m doing
this’. Referring to the helicopter, a Marine replied ‘Wait a minute, just pretend to do it, till he’s behind
them trees’ (at [22](v)). A third Marine suggested: ‘Yeah, maybe we should pump one in his heart’.
Blackman replied: ‘Er he’s dead. Don’t waste your ( ...) FFDs on the cheeser. Take it off him. Right, get
the—get the HIIDE [Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment] camera out, see if you can get
a picture of him’ (at [22](x)). A period elapsed before Blackman crouched down and fired at point blank
range into the insurgent’s chest. He said ‘here you are, shuffle off this mortal coil ( ...)’ (at [22](xiv))
then ‘It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us. Obviously this doesn’t go anywhere, fellas. I’ve just broke the
Geneva Convention’ (at [22](xvi)).
The court martial found Blackman guilty of murder. No psychiatric evidence was presented at trial,
but for the purpose of sentencing, a psychiatric report was obtained in November 2013. The report
concluded that Blackman may have been suffering from an undetected combat stress disorder. The
examining expert emphasised combat stress could offer no defence to criminal misconduct; it could only
The Journal of Criminal Law
2017, Vol. 81(4) 262–266
ªThe Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0022018317722246
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