S.A.S. instructor demoted, given detention

Press, 23 April 1979, Page 1

S.A.S. instructor demoted, given detention

PA Auckland A Special Air Service Instructor was stripped of his rank and sentenced to nine months detention at the end of a three-day court-martial on Saturday. Corporal Christopher James Butler aged 28, was found guilty on 14 charges by the Court, sitting at the Papakura Military Camp. He was found not guilty on a further eight chages. The charges involved striking and using violence to superiors, striking a fellow officer, and strik ing and ill-treating soldiers. They arose from incidents on March 9. All the offences were committed against students attending a Special Air Service selection course. The verdict followed almost five hours of deliberation by the three members of the Court. A further three-quarters of an hour was spent considering the sentence, which is subject to confirmation by a senior Army officer. Presiding over the court was Major T. N. Culley. The other members were Captain D. F. Pollard and Captain H. H. Tobias. The judge-advocate was Mr G. S. Brockett.

Butler elected not to give evidence or to call defence witnesses.

His defending officer, Captain J. N. Hunt, said in his closing address that in none of the cases could

it be shown that Butler had intended to harm or injure. In one case involving a charge of striking and using violence to a superior there was doubt about whether Butler had really known that the person was a superior officer. The Court had earlier been told that Butler had placed a burning cigarette lighter beneath a soldier’s face.

Captain Hunt said there had been doubt created in the evidence on whether Butler had deliberately burnt a soldier or whether he had intended only to intimidate or frighten him.

In another similar incident, it had been claimed that the lighter had left a burn on a soldier’s face but no resulting scar had been evident. Some of the incidents of alleged striking of soldiers had really involved pushing motions rather than forceful strikes. There had been insufficient evidence that the ill-treating charges had, in fact, involved ill treating as it was defined in the dictionary. Butler had been accused of spitting on a soldier but one witness had told the Court that he had not seen anyone spit throughout the incident. Captain Hunt urged the Court to take into account the fact that Butler had been given a task he had not been fully briefed for.

Butler was found guilty on one charge of striking a superior officer, one of using violence to a superior officer, five charges of ill-treating soldiers, and seven charges of striking a soldier.

He was found not guilty on one charge of striking an officer, five charges of striking an officer, and two charges of ill-treating soldiers.

Major D. G. Shattky sail that he had supervised Butler’s selection for the S.A.S. in March, 1976, and that later that year Butler had been posted under his command. Later Butler had been sent for S.A.S. training.

“It is not normal for N.C.O.s to retain their rank after training but his performance was such that he retained his rank as a lance-corporal,” said Major Shattky. When asked by the president of the Court whether he would like to see Butler retained in the S.A.S. he said, “With limited knowledge of the circumstances surrounding this court-martial there has been a doubt raised in my mind regarding Corporal Butler: there is no way that the S.A.S. squadron could afford to keep Corporal Butler in these circumstances.”

But this was in no way to reflect on his ability as a soldier in the Army, Major Shattky said.