European threat to Navy courts martial

The Royal Navy may have to change its ancient system of justice after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a court martial in which a 1991 Gulf War veteran was dismissed from the service was unfair.

Judges in Strasbourg said yesterday that Mark Grieves, 35, a former leading seaman on HMS Invincible, did not receive an independent hearing when he was dismissed from the service after a bar room brawl in 1998. Mr Grieves, from Devon, also spent 16 months in jail and was fined £700 after being found guilty of "maliciously wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm".

The court that tried him - including the judge, his barrister and the prosecution barrister - was made up entirely of serving naval officers, none of whom was a permanent court official. This breached the requirement of "independence and impartiality" under the European Convention on Human Rights, the 17 judges in Strasbourg found. Mr Grieves was awarded £5,600 in costs.

The RAF and Army use civilian judges.

The case ends a five-year fight by Mr Grieves, who said from his home in Plymouth: "I just cried when I saw the judgment. I feel like I've woken up from a nightmare."

He said a "scuffle" in a bar in Gibraltar in 1997 had ended with another sailor suffering a neck injury, which Mr Grieves, now a building contracts manager, said was accidental.