A former officer in 42 Commando, who had served alongside the sergeant, said: “There was an expectation that this was going to happen, a sense of resignation. No one is condoning what he did, but there is going to be an ongoing threat on him. What are they going to do, keep him in solitary confinement to stop attacks?”
While service personnel convicted of murder are not automatically kicked out, it seems Blackman’s career as a Marine is over. He had won promotion to lance corporal soon after joining and first experienced extensive combat following the invasion of Iraq, as British forces came