DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Sgt Blackman and a good day for justice
Six days after the Mail launched its Battle for Justice campaign, ministers have agreed to show fairness to Sgt Alexander Blackman, convicted of murder for killing a wounded Taliban gunman in the heat of battle.
In a hugely welcome about-turn, they will make available to the jailed marine's legal defence team a full secret report on the shooting, which had been scandalously withheld.
Until now, in an affront to justice, the MoD has released only a heavily censored copy of the report's summary, highlighting extracts that incriminate Sgt Blackman.
Six days after the Mail launched its Battle for Justice campaign, ministers have agreed to show fairness to Sgt Alexander Blackman (above), convicted of murder for killing an injured Taliban gunman in the heat of battle
But as the Mail can reveal today, the passages obscured by the top brass powerfully support his case for reducing the murder charge to manslaughter.
Key among these is the admission that senior officers were blind to the 'psychological strain and fatigue' suffered by the marine and his men, who were inadequately supervised during the Helmand 'tour from hell'.
We repeat that nothing can condone Sgt Blackman's actions. But why was such vital evidence about his state of mind not shown to his court martial?
This paper is moved by yesterday's tributes to our campaign, voiced by MPs in support of returning the case to the Court of Appeal.
The passages obscured by the top brass powerfully support Sgt Blackman's case for reducing the murder charge to manslaughter. Above, the soldier is pictured at his wedding to wife, Claire Blackman
But the highest praise must go to our readers, who have so far given £250,000 to Sgt Blackman's legal fighting fund.
After yesterday's breakthrough, the justice in which they've shown such faith may yet be done.
Unbelievable smears
Lives have been ruined, reputations destroyed and valuable police time and money squandered.
Yet not a scrap of evidence has emerged to support lurid allegations, brought by a man identified only as 'Nick', that a VIP paedophile ring ritually murdered three boys in the 1970s and 1980s.
No reliable witnesses have backed the claims against such Establishment figures as D-Day hero Lord Bramall, former prime minister Edward Heath and ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan.
No bodies have been found. Nobody even knows who might have been killed.
Indeed, it becomes ever harder to understand why a senior detective chose to describe Nick as a 'credible and true' witness – or why another posed outside the late Sir Edward's house, inviting 'victims' to come forward.
Doesn't this £1million inquiry look like a desperate attempt to make up for the shocking police failure to investigate genuine claims against monsters such as Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith?
Nobody believes more passionately than the Mail that child abuse is a vile crime, whose victims must never be ignored.
But as former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord Macdonald lamented in yesterday's Mail: 'The more that false accusers are indulged, the less that genuine victims will be believed.'
Today, this paper reveals that Scotland Yard's inquiry is under review, amid 'grave doubts' about Nick's testimony.
In a magnificent show of defiance, David Cameron (pictured, left, on Wednesday) refused point blank to pay a £1.7billion surcharge to the EU, describing it as 'appalling' and 'totally unacceptable'. But that was before the election. Now, it emerges that since polling day, George Osborne (right) has quietly paid the bill in full
What a tragedy that the police failed to weigh those doubts before dragging so many names through the mud.
What price honesty?
In a magnificent show of defiance, David Cameron refused point blank to pay a £1.7billion surcharge to the EU, describing it as 'appalling' and 'totally unacceptable'. Ah, but that was before the election.
Now it emerges that since polling day, Chancellor George Osborne has quietly paid the bill in full – despite having claimed last November that he'd forced Brussels to halve it.
No wonder voters are exasperated by our posturing political class.
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