Joe Glenton, a soldier who was sentenced to nine months imprisonment in March for going absent without leave after refusing to return to fight in Afghanistan, lost his appeal against his sentence in the high court in London today.

The lance corporal went missing on 11 June 2007 and was absent for over two years before he turned himself in. He said that he suffered post traumatic stress disorder.

Joe Glenton claimed that when he told his bosses that he did not want to return to Afghanistan, they accused him of being a ‘coward’ and a ‘malingerer’.

Anti-war protestors gathered at the high court today ahead of the hearing in support of Joe and his family. His supporters claim that he has been mistreated in the military prison where he is being held.

Comments

• Posted by jgharston on April 26, 2010

  However I look at this case it makes me uncomfortable. We don’t have conscription in this country, so nobody is forced into the armed services. If a person does not believe in fighting, they simply choose not to join up. Mr Glenton doesn’t appear to be somebody who changed his mind after joining up, which is what his superiors appear to be accusing him of. It appears to be a case that anywhere else would be described as “work-related illness” caused the “employee” to no longer be able to perform his job. That shouldn’t have resulted in him refusing to turn up for work. Somewhere the system broken down and those responsible for “employee welfare” dropped the ball in allowing this to get to this stage. We can’t have a system going back to the WW1 culture where conflict-reated illness is deemed a crime.

• Posted by RoyP on April 29, 2010

  Joining the Armed Forces appears to be the only contract that can be signed by an under 18 that is legally binding, and has a minimum period of 7 years, enforced ruthlessly. I attended both the sentencing hearing and the appeal, to my ears the evidence clearly indicated both a serious injury and a culture of endemic bullying. Much was made of the help available - a medical appointment for the day after he would have been sent back to Afghanistan,a deployment in breach of army guidelines as there was insufficient time since his last deployment, was missed because he went AWOL, would still have been missed had he been deployed. Those who know Douglas Adams’ writings will know why I was reminded of official notices publicly displayed in a locked filing cabinet at the bottom of a disused stairwell ....
  Time Joe served while the army decided whether or not to charge him with desertion, which amounted to more than the sentence for AWOL, could not be counted as time served because the army were deemed entitled to take their time deciding what to charge him with. In the civilian world that would be time served on remand and would count against the sentence, but the army make their own rules.