SAS war hero jailed after 'betrayal'

Crusader74

Verified Military
Verified Military
Joined
Oct 24, 2006
Messages
2,767
Sgt Danny Nightingale, a special forces sniper who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sentenced to 18 months in military detention by a court martial last week.

His sentence was described last night as the “betrayal of a war hero”, made worse because it was handed down in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.

Sgt Nightingale had planned to fight the charge of illegally possessing the 9mm Glock.

But his lawyer said he pleaded guilty after being warned that he could otherwise face a five-year sentence.

The soldier had hoped for leniency given the circumstances. At the court martial, even the prosecution described him as a serviceman of exemplary character, who had served his country for 17 years, 11 in the special forces.


The court was told that he returned to Britain in a hurry after two friends were killed in Iraq, leaving his equipment — including the pistol — to be packed up by colleagues.

It accepted evidence from expert witnesses that he suffered severe memory loss due to a brain injury.

Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor, presiding over the court martial, could have spared the soldier prison by passing a suspended sentence. Instead he handed down the custodial term.

Sgt Nightingale and his family chose to waive the anonymity usually given to members of the special forces.

His wife, Sally, said her husband’s sentence was a “disgrace”. She called him a “hero who had been betrayed”. She said she and the couple’s two daughters, aged two and five, faced losing their home after his Army pay was stopped.

The soldier’s former commanding officer and politicians have called for the sentence to be overturned.

Lt Col Richard Williams, who won a Military Cross in Afghanistan in 2001 and was Sgt Nightingale’s commanding officer in Iraq, said the sentence “clearly needed to be overturned immediately”.

He said: “His military career has been ruined and his wife and children face being evicted from their home — this is a total betrayal of a man who dedicated his life to the service of his country.”

Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP for Newark and a former infantry officer, said he planned to take up the case with the Defence Secretary. Simon McKay, Sgt Nightingale’s lawyer, said: “On Remembrance Sunday, when the nation remembers its war heroes, my client — one of their number — is in a prison cell.

"I consider the sentence to be excessive and the basis of the guilty plea unsafe. It is a gross miscarriage of justice and grounds of appeal are already being prepared.”

In 2007, Sgt Nightingale was serving in Iraq as a member of Task Force Black, a covert counter-terrorist unit that conducted operations under orders to capture and kill members of al-Qaeda.

He also helped train members of a secret counter-terrorist force called the Apostles. At the end of the training he was presented with the Glock, which he planned to donate to his regiment as a war trophy.

But in November 2007, two of Sgt Nightingale’s closest friends, Sgt John

Battersby and Cpl Lee Fitzsimmons, were killed in a helicopter crash. He accompanied both bodies back to Britain and helped arrange the funerals.

In Iraq, his equipment was packed by colleagues, one of whom placed the pistol inside a container that was sent first to the SAS regimental headquarters in Hereford, then to his home where it remained unopened until 2010.

In 2009, Sgt Nightingale, now a member of the SAS selection staff, took part in a 200-mile fund-raising trek in Brazil. He collapsed after 30 miles and fell into a coma for three days.

He recovered but his memory was severely damaged, according to two expert witnesses, including Prof Michael Kopleman of King’s College, London, an authority on memory loss.

In May, 2010, Sgt Nightingale was living in a house with another soldier close to the regiment’s headquarters when he was posted to Afghanistan at short notice.

During the tour, his housemate’s estranged wife claimed her husband had assaulted her and kept a stash of ammunition in the house. West Mercia Police raided the house and found the Glock, still in its container.

Sgt Nightingale’s court martial did not dispute that the pistol had been a gift. It accepted statements from expert witnesses, including Dr Susan Young, a forensic psychologist also from King’s College, London. She said that he probably had no recollection that he had the gun.

The court also accepted that Sgt Nightingale had suffered severe memory loss. But the judge did not believe that he had no recollection of being in possession of the weapon.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9669...-betrayal.html
 
I don't know... the Soldier's story seems kind of fishy. I've seen/heard about A LOT of guys who get busted trying to bring weapons home, which is what it looks like to me. Dude's memory is so bad that he "forgets" that he had a Glock sent home to him because his memory is so shitty, yet his memory is good enough to keep him in an elite SOF unit? :hmm: It's illegal to ship modern weapons out of Afghanistan and Iraq except in VERY specific circumstances. And since it is the UK, I'm assuming the Glock was probably illegal for him to possess it in the first place.

On one of my trips to Iraq, we were presented a chromed-out AK with elaborate writing on the pistol grip and stock. I had the SeaBees de-mil' it, and I tried to get permission to send it home to our unit (a SOF unit, very closely affiliated with the one named in this story). Permission denied. So guess what? That weapon got left in Iraq.

I'm also curious about the way he acquired the weapon. We (the US) issued a lot of Glocks to the Iraq police. Many of those pistols ended up missing. Coincidence? If it was legitimately "presented" to him (which I'm doubting more and more), was it just him or did his mates get presented Glocks as well? And if they did, what happened to those weapons? I'm kind of thinking there is a whole lot more to this story.

I also think the "I had no recollection I had the weapon" is complete BS, I agree with the judge.
 
It's illegal to own a pistol in the UK that's not a muzzle loader IIRC.

The guy had a legitimate/cover story and it didn't wash. That's the way things are in the UK, guys who face a very real threat from certain groups due to the nature of their jobs can't have a pistol to protect themselves.

I aint going to fault him for how it ended up in his house either mistakenly or not.
 
There is only one solution when the government tramples on the spines and skulls of its defenders and keepers.

It worked for us over here. Unfortunately for this war hero, his nation and countrymen have gone quietly into submission to it's ruling monster of a bureacracy, and will probably never realize the full extent of liberty they are naturally entitled to. Hell, we are having an extraordinary time holding on to our liberty here to the same overgrown type of bureacracy.

There is no absolute correlation between the validity of a standing law and it's inherent morality or justice.
 
Wow, they burn their own SAS hero, who is probably one of the most qualified to own/posses a pistol for having it sealed in a container, that had been there for a couple of years. What a fucking shame, the British people should come un-fucking-glued about this.

What a stupid law, and an even more retarded judge to give a sentence like that to any British soldier under those conditions, much less a national hero.
 
I don't know... the Soldier's story seems kind of fishy. I've seen/heard about A LOT of guys who get busted trying to bring weapons home, which is what it looks like to me. Dude's memory is so bad that he "forgets" that he had a Glock sent home to him because his memory is so shitty, yet his memory is good enough to keep him in an elite SOF unit? :hmm: It's illegal to ship modern weapons out of Afghanistan and Iraq except in VERY specific circumstances. And since it is the UK, I'm assuming the Glock was probably illegal for him to possess it in the first place.

On one of my trips to Iraq, we were presented a chromed-out AK with elaborate writing on the pistol grip and stock. I had the SeaBees de-mil' it, and I tried to get permission to send it home to our unit (a SOF unit, very closely affiliated with the one named in this story). Permission denied. So guess what? That weapon got left in Iraq.

I'm also curious about the way he acquired the weapon. We (the US) issued a lot of Glocks to the Iraq police. Many of those pistols ended up missing. Coincidence? If it was legitimately "presented" to him (which I'm doubting more and more), was it just him or did his mates get presented Glocks as well? And if they did, what happened to those weapons? I'm kind of thinking there is a whole lot more to this story.

I also think the "I had no recollection I had the weapon" is complete BS, I agree with the judge.


AFAIK, The SAS tend to keep their injured personal instead of RTU'ing them.. They are usually kept in admin or training roles. From the UK papers we get here, they're having problems with retention from going to the private sector.
 
I can tell you with absolute certainty that mil mail at least on this side of the border is screened before leaving the FOB or overseas post. Troops are strongly warned against poaching assets not deactivated and in most cases wouldnt be able take trophies as there is a lengthy process to get it. Someone dropped the ball somewhere and sadly someone got dinged over it.
 
In my opinion it would be justice for him to recieve an apology from the court, get all charges dropped, have his records expunged, have the flatfoots who investigated and prosecuted him be stripped of their positions, and have a total lifting of the ban on firearms for at the very least all SAS men, with more lax consideration and permitting for all servicemen in the UK.
 
In my opinion it would be justice for him to recieve an apology from the court, get all charges dropped, have his records expunged, have the flatfoots who investigated and prosecuted him be stripped of their positions, and have a total lifting of the ban on firearms for at the very least all SAS men, with more lax consideration and permitting for all servicemen in the UK.

It doesn't matter his service, he still committed an offence AND it's supposed to be a 5 year mandatory sentence. So, as Mara says, he should say thank you sir and move along briskly.
 
I've known plenty of guys who purposefully diverted weapons for keeps (and not just from overseas operations). This is exactly the type of risk you face, and he was just unlucky enough to be caught. Big boys' rules and all that.

What's sad is that this is what it comes to when you aren't legally allowed to keep arms at home.
 
Back
Top