Sergeant jailed for holding eight-inch knife to throat of colleague to show him who was ‘top dog’
An army sergeant held an eight-inch ‘jungle’ knife to the neck of a lower-ranked colleague who called him a “mong”, a military court has heard.
Sgt Matthew Crews was “heavily intoxicated” when he chased and threatened Gunner Oliver Palmer with the weapon while on a foreign posting.
The 36-year-old, a multi-launch rocket system (MLRS) specialist, had the altercation with Gnr Palmer after returning from a social event.
A court martial heard Sgt Crews, of 26 Royal Artillery Regiment, threatened him with the knife as he felt that he had to show him who was “top dog”.
Sgt Crews was sentenced to a year’s military detention and dismissed from the Army.
Prosecuting, Captain Hugh-Guy Lorriman told Bulford Military Court, Wilts, that the incident took place on July 28, 2022, during operation Iron Surge in Estonia.
Sgt Crews had gone into Tapa town centre before returning to army accommodation.
Cpt Lorriman told the court he and Gunner Palmer – who has since left the Army – were both in the corridor of the accommodation when the ‘exchange’ occurred.
He said: “[There was an] exchange between the two men in which Gunner Palmer called Sergeant Crews a ‘mong’.
“He told the complainant not to call him a ‘mong’. The defendant then went into his room and re-emerged with a long black knife.
“The defendant burst out [of] his room with the knife and when [Gunner Palmer] took a few steps back he started chasing him.”
Cpt Lorriman added: “It was at that moment where the defendant took the knife out, unsheathed it and held it to the throat of the complainant.
“Gunner Palmer said that the knife was pressed up against his neck so that if it had moved, it would have cut him.”
Sentencing, Judge Advocate General Alan Large – the highest ranking military judge in the UK – said: “We have no doubt that when you are on the field you are a good soldier but that night, you weren’t.
“[The offence] was committed in an operational environment. Gunner Palmer was a subordinate, junior in rank.
“Sergeants cannot go around threatening their subordinates with knives.”
Judge Large said Sgt Crews should have tried to de-escalate the “stupid altercation”.
