SAS Soldier Jailed

SAS war hero jailed after 'betrayal'
An SAS hero has been jailed for possessing a “war trophy” pistol presented to him by the Iraqi Army for outstanding service.

Sgt Danny Nightingale with his wife Sally on their wedding day and, right, on duty Photo: WARREN SMITH
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent9:00PM GMT 10 Nov 2012186 Comments
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.
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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.

SAS war hero jailed after 'betrayal' - Telegraph

 

This is a sad case - where the PC reactions of Plod and the MOD have ruined a life, I think the sentence was more to warn others off from war souvenir possession.

Steven

 

I suspect most won't agree but I think he got off lightly....I was only a reservist and knew the rules about bringing firearms back into the UK from Iraq and followed them when I got a AK-47 for the mess.

A civilian could expect to receive a min 5 years to a max of 10 years for the same offence and fail to see why the armed forces should be treated any different and as a Sergeant he should have known better. Then again what the media says and what the real reasons were from bringing an illegal firearm in to the UK only he will know.

 

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.

Many troops have kit sent back from Op Areas packed by others - I had a case sent back from Ulster many years ago packed by others which I did not open for many years
though it contained nothing that would have led to legal problems.

The Nanny State attitude regarding weapons is a little silly; people kill and injure people not the weapons - I suppose it will soon be illegal to own a pet rock on the supposition that it could be used to bash someones brains out!

 

Some good sensible arguments on Arrse.

Sgt Danny Nightingale, betrayed and banged up

I still think he got off lightly (Pistol found in a Police raid along with hundreds of rounds of various calibre ammunition). I saw his Missus was on GMTV this morning saying to the general public how hard it was in a militray prison and that he was struggling-Either she is being lied to or she is lying. He's in a Military Corrective Training Centre and I can asure you it ain't no prison.

Military Corrective Training Centre - British Army Website

The MCTC is an establishment that provides corrective training for those servicemen and women sentenced to periods of detention; it is not a prison.

 

Drew

An interesting comment on the news this morning suggests that there was a very lax attitude towards illegally held firearms in the unit at the time. Apparently after Nightingale's arrest a large number of weapons and ammunition were handed in during an amnesty.

John

 

I arranged to have a AK-47 brought back from Iraq for the mess at the end of Telic One and I had to jump through more hoops and fill more paperwork in than applying for citizenship to Australia. We were all made very aware of what to do and the possible circumstances if we didn't.

 

His treatment seems harsh to me.
Slightly different lighter tack: When my dad was demobbed from the RAF he made an ironing board around a rifle-he got away with it until his mum found out. What she made him do with it is now unfortunately lost in history but she wasn't best pleased!

 

The American Committee for the Defense of British Homes was formed in 1940, a year before lend-lease was passed. Over 7000 privately owned guns were donated. They were destroyed after the war.

 

The thread has drifted slightly since it started and I see we are now talking about the weapons that were sometimes brought home from the wars as souvenirs.

Back in 2008 I posted the following article about a dagger I once aquired;

Hi
I thought it might be of interest to offer the viewpoint of one of this sites "vets" with regard to the collection of memorabilia.
To start with, I would think that from the earliest times, warriors collected booty from their enemies and in the field it was considered quite the norm to relieve prisoners of their military insignia.
I have written elsewhere about my first aquisition, namely an Afrika Corps armband, and as I had only arrived in North Africa in the last few weeks of the campaign (April 1943) I could, I suppose, be forgiven for wanting to get a souvenir.
Once we had arrived in Sicily I started collecting in earnest.
I had a stock German belt, complete with its Gott Mit Uns buckle and I started collecting metal insignia that I fixed to the belt until it was quite full.
I also had a Geman dress dagger with its red hilt although, 60 odd years later I cringe at the bad taste of aquiring such a souvenir particularly when you consider my Jewish background .
I had a couple of Jerry cameras which I was forever swapping, but Oh how glad I am today that I was able to capture images of those frenetic days !
A spell in dock whilst at Cassino resulted in virtually all of my souvenirs disappearing as one was only allowed to take with ones "small kit" and when I had my first leave home in 1946 the dagger was discreetly dropped overboard as the ferry docked.
The rest of my memorabilia I now posess is in my eponymous Army Album and consists in the main of documents and photos.
Ron Goldstein's Army Album
Ron Goldstein's Actual Army Album
I can well understand why many folk still collect WW2 bits & pieces but, as others have already written, I would agree that one should be mindful of the origin of the artifacts.

Ron

 

He got off very, very, lightly, not dismissed from the service, no reduction in rank. Not only did he have a gun there was also quite an assortment of ammo, including 9mm for the gun. And over 5 yrs he didn't remember he had the gun? Incredible.

 

Many soldiers like a drink - the thought that some may have serviceable weapons and ammunition to hand is frightening. Bit of an old 'Woodentop' rules is rules break em and you face the desk.

 

I now know what to say if ever my house is raided and I'm arrested for possession of a semi automatic pistol and over 300 rounds of ammo.

'But I was a good soldier and I forgot I had it when I came home from Iraq because I suffer from PTSD, I'm sorry'

Farcical

 

Surprised no one has updated this thread.

BBC News - SAS man Danny Nightingale released by Court of Appeal




During WW2 the BBC was praised for its accuracy of reporting. The headline and main text of the article are seriously misleading. I was naturally puzzled that a soldier could apparently leapfrog the Court Martial Appeal Court by going straight from Court Martial to the Court of Appeal. Only at the very end of the piece does the BBC grudgingly admit that the court in question was, indeed, the Court Martial Appeal Court, a quite different body, and necessarily so, because any appeal from it goes to the Court of Appeal. Since all the court documentation must have made this abundantly clear, the BBC's report must be deemed to be intentionally misleading.

The report is also misleading in referring to a sentence of 18 months without making it clear that it was 18 months detention. In ordinary parlance, without qualification, 18 months is normally taken to mean 18 months imprisonment - a sentence which the court-martial could have imposed.

It may also be remarked that the CMAC's attitude in this case, in taking note of a commanding officer's commendation of a soldier illegally possessing a weapon and therefore suspending his sentence, is remarkably different from its decision a year ago (October 2011) in ignoring the commanding officer's commendation of Leading Medical Assistant Michael Lyons (RN) and confirming his sentence of 7 months detention for refusing, on grounds of conscience, to draw a weapon as part of training for deployment to Afghanistan.

 

I now know what to say if ever my house is raided and I'm arrested for possession of a semi automatic pistol and over 300 rounds of ammo.

'But I was a good soldier and I forgot I had it when I came home from Iraq because I suffer from PTSD, I'm sorry'

What's interesting about this story is how it illustrates the problems that arise when you treat servicemen as plaster saints called 'heroes.'

Acts of heroism exist; heroes do not.

Best, Alan

 

His release is being discussed on ARRSE

Sgt Danny Nightingale out on appeal !

 

Public opinion drummed up by tabloid press is invariably ill considered. I don't doubt the helpfulness in an appeal of revised evidence, new representation and yet more character witnesses and so forth, but I can't help wondering if he hadn't been SAS would we even be reading about it? I think not. As my old dad would say: if you're stupid enough to get caught, you deserve what's coming. This man had plenty of time to sort it out. Bad legal advice or not, I wouldn't trust anyone in that job who is unable to grasp the full ramifications of his actions, or inaction.

The squaddie who is caught next had better watch out. That case will be watertight, taken to the max, and I'm willing to take a bet he won't have the backing of any pressure groups. Next time, because public opinion and the tabloids can be ever so slightly fickle, we might be reading reminders of illegally held weapons and gun crime like these
BBC NEWS | UK | England | Merseyside | Weapon found in Rhys murder probe
Brother pleads guilty to shooting sister, 12. | Metro.co.uk
Three gang members guilty of shooting that left girl paralysed | UK news | The Guardian

 

I read that he bought the 300 rounds of ammo 2 years after he got the gun.
Seems he remembered he had it, bought the ammo and then forgot about it again.
Not quite the 'memory slip' it is made out to be

 

Are people allowed to buy ammo in the UK?