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SAS sniper Nightingale trial

An SAS sniper accused of illegally possessing a gun and ammunition is to begin giving evidence at his court martial. Sgt Danny Nightingale's previous conviction for the same charges was quashed by Court of Appeal judges in March.

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Sniper gave 'various explanations' for gun possession

The trial of an SAS sniper accused of illegally possessing a gun and ammunition has heard that Sgt Danny Nightingale had given "various explanations" for how they came into his possession.

Timothy Cray, prosecuting said:

He first said that he got the gun in Iraq in 2007, that he brought it back to this country intending to present it to his unit as a trophy, but then somehow never got round to completing that task during the four years that he has the gun in the UK.

He also said that he had accumulated the ammunition because he was a range instructor and, over the years, it had built up through poor administration and repeated failures to book it make into the secure stores or to put it in an amnesty bin.

Mr Cray told the board that Sgt Nightingale would now be inviting the court to consider that his earlier explanations were "unreliable" due to memory difficulties.

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