[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
International News Title: Iraq hero who made recruits eat boot polish fined £1,000 A highly decorated soldier who forced Army recruits to lick dirt and eat boot polish was fined £1,000 yesterday after admitting eight charges of ill-treatment and one of battery. A military court was told that Colour Sgt Christopher Broome, 37, of the 1st Battalion the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, had witnessed horrific scenes in Iraq that had later devastated his personal and professional life. Colour Sgt Christopher Broome Colour Sgt Christopher Broome: ‘role model’ Judge Advocate Paul Camp told him: "You are a role model but on this occasion you fell below that standard." He said he was imposing the punishment to show that "however distinguished a soldier may be, conduct like this is no longer acceptable in the Army". Broome won the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, second only to the Victoria Cross, for his bravery in Iraq in 2004. The father-of-two led a bayonet charge against insurgents at Al Majar Al Kabir. It was claimed that Broome was suffering from an untreated case of post-traumatic stress disorder when he attacked the soldiers, forcing them to eat dust and shoe polish. The carnage that Sgt Broome witnessed was to lead to "excessive" displays of anger that resulted in the assaults on July 25 last year, the Military Court Centre in Bulford, Wilts, heard. During a morning inspection of a room of 10 young recruits at the Army Training Centre in Winchester, Hants, he became furious at the lack of attention paid to room-cleaning. Using his finger to wipe dust off the floor, he made the soldiers lick the dirt off his fingers. On one occasion he forced a soldier to eat boot polish. And when another soldier addressed him by the wrong rank, he hit him on the head twice with his heavy "pace stick". Almost immediately after the incident, Broome took the private to the medical centre and explained to his superiors what had happened. During interviews with military police, he said he could not "apologise enough for this" and asked to write to the parents of the private he had hit. In a statement to the court, Broome said he had been "frustrated by the lack of effort" by that section and wanted to make them work together as a team. Although he was "deeply sorry", his actions stemmed from a desire to instil discipline in the recruits because of the situations in which "they might find themselves in Iraq". An array of decorated officers stepped forward to praise the soldier's actions during some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq. Broome had carried out acts of bravery that included saving the life of Pte Johnson Beharry VC during the battalion's tour of the volatile Maysan province in the summer of 2004. Christopher Hill, defending, also told the court that the NCO was trying to reinforce the point to the recruits that "within a few weeks they could be on the streets of Iraq". Mr Hill said that Broome, who has also served in Kosovo and Northern Ireland during his 19-year Army career, should never have gone to Winchester because he was not suitable to teach teenagers as he had not been treated for the battle stress. The soldier had missed out on his battalion's "decompression" in Qatar after their tour, in which soldiers discussed their problems among themselves. Col Matt Mayer told the court that he had "the honour of being the commanding officer" of the soldier. He was a man of "courage" and showed composure and grit under fire. "This is a man who repeatedly, in the face of mortal danger, put his life before that of his soldiers. If I was to command Colour Sgt Broome again, I would consider it an honour." Judge Advocate Camp, presiding over the court martial, said the eight counts of mistreating recruits and one of assault were at the lower end of the scale. Before the sentence was read out, he said: "These proceedings themselves have slowed your recovery."
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|