I have a funny feeling the MOD is now closing ranks on him, and he will be sent down, too much publicity for the Regiment, and in all honesty to have that amount of bullets+weapon at home it was never going to end well for anyone! He has been lucky so far, we will see.
It is difficult to see how he can practically improve his position from where he was prior to the original verdict being overturned. If he was advised poorly in the first instance it would seem that in the second instance it was even worse.
They should have got one of his seniors to have a word with him and get him to bring the naughty things back to work. The issue here lies with the git that got him caught in the first place by getting police round his house. Unless this is all for a reason and the case an unfortunate fallout. He's a blade, he's cleared to defence Vetting level, he's a senior NCO in the top regiment of UK forces. Why was his house searched in the first place? Sounds like the kind of thing my ex-wife would do to get one over on me. (I'm not a blade and I don't have pistols or ammo in my house, before you get the police round )
Not really. When somebody commits serious firearms offences, the issue lies with the offender not with the people who do their duty and catch him. If the police have credible information that illegal weaponry is being held in a house in their area, they must search it, and they must report what they find to prosecutors. Surely you cannot be suggesting the police ought to ignore it?
He hasn't committed a serious fire arm offence, he is a soldier and had a pistol at home and some ammunition. It's not like he held up a post office. I'm suggesting that instead of having him arrested and the UK losing a highly valuable tool that's hard to replace and very expensive to train, he could have perhaps just been asked to stick it in the armoury with the others. He deals with fire arms a lot, I should imagine, in both civilian and military profiles. So it's not so hard to imagine that he forgot he had it, or had it stored away by some one else as has been claimed. The first port of call for who ever knew about it should have been his boss, and not the police.
Re-reading your response, I think my comment may not have been clear. Obviously the police, having been informed he had a pistol, should have gone and checked it out. I think the person who called the police should have called his boss instead. Once the police had been told the result was inevitable
Perhaps he also forgot that he had stolen over 300 rounds of live ammunition of six different types including boxes of armour piercing, with the thefts taking place on many different occasions over a long period. It would be so easy to forget something like that.
Perhaps you are not familiar with the backstory, Tomrowley. N shared a flat in Hereford with another soldier; N's family home was in Crewe, too far to commute to Hereford. The other soldier was investigated for an alleged firearms offence, and the police searched the flat for that reason. They happened to come across N's stash of illegal weaponry, and they were duty bound to take action.
You are correct, I am not familiar with the full details, I just know how easy it is to carry around ammunition that you forget about. Obviously my assumption that he had been 'grassed' up was wrong. This story was being presented ( in limited media exposure, to someone who has been out of the country for the last 6 months) as such that a blade had a weapon at his house, he also had some ammo. There seemed to be no malicious intent; only possession. Perhaps I'm looking at this with a military point of view rather that as a civilian. Being very familiar with weapons, ammunition and carrying them both in a variety of environments, including in the UK would make it easy to take ammunition home. 300 rounds is the number I heard. They come in boxes of 50. A box here and a box there wouldn't take long to accumulate over a few years of service. Perhaps they even keep something at their home in case they are called out and need something faster than a trip to H. perhaps the army don't want to admit this practice. Again, I don't know. I find it hard to accept that a blade would steal ammunition. The calibre of those blokes is exceptional. I think there is more to this than is being said.
Sgt Nightingale apparently illegally possessed a 9mm Glock pistol and over 300 rounds of live ammunition (comprising 122 live rounds of 9mm, 40 live rounds of 7.62mm, 50 frangible rounds of 9mm, 50 live rounds of armour piecing, 2 live rounds of .308, and 74 live rounds of 5.56mm). Under the Firearms Acts 1968-97 these are very serious offences and the Firearms Acts are among the very few laws to require minimum (sic) sentences of imprisonment, of five years for some offences. Soldiers trained in the use of firearms are in a better position to be aware of this than most people.
Frangible would be simunition? Paint rounds? I had to look it up. I think it's not such a big deal. The odd numbers suggest to me it's just kit he's taken home by accident. If you're going to steal 2 .308 rounds you might as well steal a box. Perhaps he's a fool for keeping it there but I really don't think it's that bad.
Frangible ammunition means, if bullets, they are basically dum-dums...... ........in other words they break up when they enter the body..... AL
Tom. Lets have a chat Monday and I'll fill you in with some of the unpublished details. As I said to pete, who also knows a lot about this case at Darren's funeral 'there is more to this than is in the public forum'.
Yes there is,and for you that dont know .308 is 7.62 in nato spec.Not many brain specialist on here I note to give proper advice on what happened to him in the mean time.??
For reference, here is a link to the JAG's judgment of 1 May 2013 rejecting defence submissions that the prosecution should not have been brought, and ordering the case to be listed for trial. It is based on legal technicalities, and is rather a dry read for the layman. http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/nightingale-application-to-stay.pdf
Another update. Army urged to drop retrial of SAS sergeant, Danny Nightingale - Home News - UK - The Independent .
