The Events That Led To A Murder
Updated: 12:04pm UK, Sunday 10 November 2013
By Alistair Bunkall, Sky News Defence Correspondent
The events that led up to the murder of the injured insurgent in Helmand Province were filmed on a helmet-camera belonging to Marine B.
The footage begins as the Marine's were nearing the end of a routine patrol. An Apache helicopter is heard flying nearby. It then fires 139 rounds at suspected insurgents.
The patrol was then asked to go and perform a tactical battlefield assessment - essentially look for injured or dead bodies.
They found one Afghan lying in the middle of a field. He was badly wounded in the chest and legs. An AK-47 was found with him.
At this point Marine B is some 40 yards from the wounded Afghan, having taken up a position to scan the field for the enemy. His camera records Marine A, a 39-year-old Sergeant, and Marine C searching and assessing the Afghan.
Having established he had no other weapons or explosives on him, Marine A then instructs his colleagues to drag the man to the edge off the field. This, he claimed, was so that they weren't sat out in the open where they would be easy targets. He wanted to treat the insurgent in safety Marine A claimed. The prosecution disagreed, arguing that it was a deliberate attempt to find cover, out of the sight of the Apache and a long range surveillance camera in Camp Bastion, know as a PGSS, that might have been monitoring their activity.
Once in a clearing on the edge of the field, Marine A is heard on the video asking if anyone wants to give the Afghan first aid.
"Anybody want to do first aid on this idiot?" he asks.
"No" reply a number of Marines.
"I'll put one in his head, if you want," offers Marine C.
Laughter is heard before Marine A decides:
"No, not in his head, 'cause that'll be f****** obvious."
Marine A is also seen speaking on the radio, updating his base on the status of the Afghan.
He claims he was preparing a '9-liner', the process of calling in medical evacuation, so called because of the nine lines of checks that must be completed before a helicopter is allowed to deploy. A pink 9-liner form can be seen in his hand at one point.
In addition to the video, the events were recorded in a journal kept by Marine C. This was also used in evidence.
"Now we were in cover, I was ready and waiting to pop him with a 9mm, one in the heart should do it, but I waited out for the nod from Marine A, ... and although for one minute I thought we were actually going to treat and casivac him, Marine A squashed it and sent it up that he'd snuffed it while we treated him," he writes.
"So there I was, pistol drawn, waiting for Marine A to get off the net so I could pop this little w***** and be done with it; when Marine A came back over, and thinned me out, to take up arcs with the others."
"As I walked off..., Marine A popped him one himself! I felt mugged off, but job done; little f*** was dead at the end of the day."
The video clearly shows Marine A lean towards the Afghan who is lying supine on the ground. He levels his 9mm pistol at the man's chest and fire a shot at virtual point blank range.
Dr Nicholas Hunt, a pathologist who gave expert witness at the trial, explained what happened next in his view:
"The hands. Particularly the right hand comes up to the area to which the weapon has been discharged – that's the first thing I noted," he told the court.
"The legs are also seen to move quite significantly. His head has started to move and his breathing becomes very obviously laboured, much more rapid than it has been before and much deeper breaths."
"He was still alive at the point he was shot. After that his breathing far less obvious – it becomes shallower and the gap between breaths increases."
Marine A's defence was that he believed the Afghan man was already dead when he shot him.
"I saw no signs of life from him, so yes I believed he'd passed,"he told Bulford Military Court.
When asked why he'd shot a man he believed was dead, Marine A replied: "Stupid, lack of self-control. Poor judgement on my part.
"I was very surprised the amount he did move. I believed he was dead. I'd not seen any movement for a few minutes. He suddenly became very animated once I'd shot him."
On the video Marine A is heard admitting he'd just broken the Geneva Convention but insists he was referring to the fact he'd shot a dead body rather an injured man.
Under cross-examination, Marine A was asked what was done to check if the man had died.
"Did anyone check the man's pulse?"
"No," Marine A answered.
"Did anyone check the man's breathing?"
"Not that I saw."
"Did anyone check the man's eyes?"
"Not that I'm aware of."
Marine B argued that he was giving the insurgent first aid but admitted it was cursory. Marine C said that he'd started walking away from the area and had his back turned when the shot was fired. He also claimed that his diary was a form of therapy and not always accurate.
The Marines were arrested in October last year. Under cross-examination during the trial Marine B admitted misleading the investigation.
"Was there a plan to cover it up?" he was asked by Dave Perry QC for the prosecution.
"We were protecting him, yes," Marine B replied. "In my opinion he had shot an alive, injured insurgent."
Mr Perry asked: "We saw on the video you suggesting a cover story to the patrol. What was the cover story to be?"
"It was just protecting Marine A. It meant to say it was a warning shot," was Marine B's answer.
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