'He's been thrown to the wolves': Veterans' fury after ex-SAS soldier in his ... trends now
The Government is facing fury from armed forces veterans after a former SAS soldier was sentenced to jail for refusing to appear at the inquest of three members of an IRA 'death squad'.
The Mail on Sunday last week exclusively revealed how the elite ex-soldier, who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has been jailed for six months after saying he was too ill to be cross-examined about the shooting of the three IRA hitmen in an SAS ambush in 1991.
The man, known only as Soldier F, is a 'shell of a man' and 'broken' by the trauma of his military service, according to an extraordinary transcript of a secret court hearing released this weekend. Two doctors diagnosed him with PTSD.
Our revelations have provoked fury from fellow veterans who accused the Ministry of Defence of 'abandoning' the highly respected soldier. One former SAS soldier said many serving members of the regiment were furious.
'The story from last week's Mail on Sunday was pinned on a squadron notice board with the words betrayed written across it,' he revealed.
A guard of honour for IRA man Lawrence McNally who was one of three killed by the SAS in Coagh Co Tyrone
Cars smashed following a shooting by the SAS of IRA gunmen in 1991
Scene of the SAS shooting of three IRA men in Coagh Co Tyrone
Former Royal Marine Sergeant Major Jeff Williams, a Northern Ireland and Falklands veteran, who runs the support group Veterans United Against Suicide, said: 'Soldier F has been thrown to the wolves. Why aren't any serving or former senior officers speaking up for him? Where is Johnny Mercer, the so-called veterans minister?'
Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy, who also served in the Falklands War and was Chief of Defence Intelligence, said: 'The imposition of a prison sentence 30 years after the event on a man suffering from PTSD seems wrong.
'There does appear to be a political dimension to some of the prosecutions in Northern Ireland and the fact the UK military kept record of events and people involved unlike the nationalist killers makes it easier to persecute them.
If only we pursued the terrorist killers with the same fervour.'
Ex-SAS sergeant Major Billy Billingham, 58, who is also a presenter on the SAS Who Dares Wins TV show said: 'I personally know this soldier. He is a
