ALEXANDER Blackman will receive police protection when he is released from prison for fears he is now a terrorist target. 

The Times newspaper reported Blackman and his wife Claire must take security precautions at their home in Taunton, Somerset because his actions have made him a target to Islamist fanatics.

Mrs Blackman told the newspaper she and her husband have received advice on upgrading security at their home, alerting police to her whereabouts, minimising their online presence and what to do if she thinks she is being followed.

Jonathan Goldberg QC, Blackman's barrister, told The Times: "Doubtless Al and Claire are now in the crosshairs of Islamist fanatics, but their local police have been magnificent."

Blackman, 42, was sentenced on Tuesday by appeal judges to seven years' imprisonment for the diminished responsibility manslaughter of the Taliban insurgent in Helmand Province in 2011.

The Court Martial Appeal Court ruled previously Blackman was suffering from an "abnormality of mental functioning" at the time of the killing when he was serving with Plymouth-based 42 Commando.

The court found the incident was not a "cold-blooded execution", as a court martial had earlier concluded, but the result of an "adjustment disorder".

Blackman has already served more than three years in jail and because of time already served he could be released from prison in the next few weeks.

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said: "We don't talk about security measures. It is not something we would discuss in the public arena."


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Since receiving the news he could soon be released, Blackman said he has felt a "profound sense of relief". 

He also paid tribute to his wife, who he said "simply sustained" him. 

He told the Daily Mail he had been "braced for the worst" during the hearing at the Court Martial Appeal Court in London on Tuesday.

He said: "My heart sank when the judge started talking about my current sentence being the equivalent of 16 years, and I thought it was somehow leading to a larger sentence.

"I just felt a profound sense of relief when they said seven."

Mrs Blackman said her husband's release "can't come soon enough" and stressed that lessons must be learned from his case.

"There are huge lessons to be learned from this case in so many aspects, from the court martial process itself, through to the way that our servicemen and women are supported during particularly stressful circumstances," she told BBC Radio 4's Today.

Her husband had "never denied that his actions on that day were caused by a serious lack of judgment, which we now know to be due to a combat stress disorder", she said.

"He has always regretted his actions, if he could turn the clock back and undo that moment he would do, in a heartbeat."