Royal Marine accused in murder of Afghan prisoner ‘constantly in fear’
Man identified as Marine C tells court martial he had no idea patrol commander would shoot injured insurgent
A Royal Marine accused of murdering a wounded Afghan insurgent has told a court martial that he was exhausted and in constant fear at the time of the shooting.
Marine C said when he left for Afghanistan he was “keen for action” but his attitude altered as the tour progressed and he saw friends killed or suffer catastrophic injuries.
“It changed as we began to take more and more casualties,” he said. “It soon became apparent this was not a game. I was drained, very stressed and constantly in fear, really.”
Three marines, identified only as A, B and C, deny murdering the injured prisoner in September 2011. Marine A, the patrol commander, shot the man in the chest but claims he believed he was already dead. Marines B and C are accused of helping and encouraging Marine A.
Giving evidence from behind a screen Marine C said he had no idea Marine A was going to shoot the prisoner. Marine C said he was walking away from where the injured insurgent lay when he heard the shot.
Marcus Tregilgas-Davey, representing Marine C, asked: “Had you any idea that was going to happen?” Marine C replied: “No.”
Marine C told the seven-strong court martial board that when he first saw the insurgent in the middle of a cornfield, he thought he was “very severely” injured and was “likely to die at any moment”. He said he felt scared. “I was in the middle of a field in a known hotspot of enemy activity.”
Video footage of the incident, recorded on Marine B’s head-camera, shows the marines dragging the man, injured in an air strike, roughly to the side of the field, and catches Marine C apparently suggesting he shoot him in the head.
Marine C explained that this was not a serious comment and described this as “banter”. He added: “It was just a spur of the moment comment, a throwaway comment to break the ice of the situation. Commando humour is to try and make light of a serious, scary, horrible situation … to try and relax everyone.”
He said his subsequent suggestion that they should “pump one in his heart” was wrong, but again insisted it was not a serious remark. “It was just a throwaway comment, banter,” he said.
Marine C told the court that, like Marine B, this was his first overseas deployment. He said British losses had hit him and his colleagues hard. But he added: “There was a definite feeling that we wanted to take the fight to the enemy and stop further incidents like this happening.”
During the summer months he said they would find a roadside bomb or come under small arms fire during almost every patrol.
“Towards the end of the tour I am sure that I and everybody else just wanted to get home without any more incident, just as quietly as possible,” he said.
The court martial at Bulford in Wiltshire continues.
