Judges rule video can be viewed to help reporting on Alexander Blackman, convicted of murder of Taliban fighter

Footage from a head-cam showing some of the buildup to the moment when a British Royal Marine shot dead a wounded Taliban fighter can finally be viewed for the first time.

Three judges ruled the footage should be made available to help the media report on the appeal of former marine Alexander Blackman, who is appealing against his life sentence for the murder of the injured man.

Blackman’s case is to be heard by the court martial appeal court next week after an investigation by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) which concluded his murder conviction could be quashed.

At the centre of his original court martial in 2013 was footage from another marine’s head-cam showing the incident, which took place in Afghanistan six years ago.

Video showing the buildup and the actual shooting has been shown in court on a number of occasions but had not been released because of fears, expressed in 2013, that it would be used as a propaganda weapon by terrorists. Still photographs, audio and a transcript have previously been released.

Ahead of next week’s appeal the Guardian, BBC, ITN, Times Newspapers and Sky argued again the footage should now be available.

On Tuesday, the three judges ruled that three clips showing some of the buildup could be released. But they withheld two other clips that show the marines dragging the injured man across a field and Blackman shooting him in the chest. The legal arguments leading up to the decision cannot be disclosed at the moment.

The first clip now published for the first time shows a group of marines, including Blackman, watching apparently from the edge of a field as an Apache helicopter opens fire with a cannon on the suspected Taliban fighter.

One marine shouts: “Shoot the cunt.” There is laughter but then frustration. “They’ve missed him,” says one. They ask why Hellfire missiles were not used. One says: “Fuck me, it’s error after error after error.”

In the second clip a marine says: “This is an absolute fucking travesty.” One says: “I think they may have got that first one.” A colleague replies: “Mate, with the amount of fucking rounds he’s got down I’d like to think so.” The third clip shows some of the marines walking out into the field to inspect the injured man.

The footage that the judges refused to be allowed to be published includes a passage in which the marines drag the injured man, the moment Blackman shoots him and what he says afterwards – “Shuffle off this mortal coil, you cunt”, then to his fellow marines: “Obviously this doesn’t go anywhere, fellas … I’ve just broken the Geneva convention.”

At the start of the original court martial hearing in 2013, government expert Paul Mott said it was the most potent footage of its kind he had viewed. “I’ve seen nothing that surpasses it in terms of radicalisation potential. It’s exceptionally worrying,” said Mott. “There’s nothing I have seen that … matches its emotional power. It is a gift in propaganda terms.”

Blackman was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 10 years, which was later reduced to eight years on appeal. He remains in prison and watched this week’s preliminary proceedings via a video link. His wife, Claire, was in court.

The CCRC said it had concluded that a number of new issues, including fresh evidence relating to the former marine’s mental state, “raise a real possibility” that the court martial appeal court “will now quash Mr Blackman’s murder conviction”.

The judges who made the decision on the footage were the lord chief justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Sir Brian Leveson and Lady Justice Hallett.