A Royal Military Police officer who helped lead murder inquiries into Special Air Service operations in Afghanistan told a public inquiry on Monday that investigators were prevented from following evidence — including photographs that appeared to undermine the SAS account of a fatal 2011 raid in Helmand.
Delme Williams, who served as deputy senior investigative officer on Operation Northmoor, said the probe into 11 SAS missions was “dictated” from above rather than driven by detectives. He told the Independent Inquiry Relating to Afghanistan that he still believes individuals should have faced criminal charges based on material his team gathered.
Nad Ali photographs
Williams focused part of his testimony on a February 2011 operation in Nad Ali district in which British special forces killed nine people at a compound. The youngest victim was 14. Investigators suspected unlawful killings and examined images that showed bullet marks low on walls — patterns Williams said a seasoned crime-scene investigator would want assessed by forensics experts.
“A picture paints a thousand words — photos are ideal evidence,” he told the inquiry. Williams said he was “quickly shut down in an abrupt manner” by the Royal Military Police gold commander when he proposed sending the images for expert review. When he pushed back, he said, his superior pulled rank and further challenge would have been insubordinate.
BBC Panorama later travelled to the site and showed the photographs to ballistics specialists, who said clusters of impacts suggested rounds fired downward from above rather than a two-way firefight — a version of events bereaved families have long advanced.
Pressure to close Northmoor
Operation Northmoor examined 45 killings linked to one SAS squadron during a single 2011 tour. Williams said there was a “general feeling” inquiries were stopped too soon and that there was “no appetite” to pursue every line of inquiry or refer cases for prosecution.
He was shown internal records indicating that senior staff confirmed Operation Northmoor “must end” in September 2017 while investigators were still collecting evidence. Williams said criminal investigations “should never be guided by an end date.”
The inquiry also heard that the former head of the British Army, Gen. Sir Nick Carter, asked the RMP to cut staffing on the murder probe to 25 people — less than a quarter of the team assigned in 2016. The officer in charge at the time believed that reduction would be impossible without harming the investigation, lawyers for the inquiry said.
Independence and next steps
Williams described seeing a briefing note for a late-2017 meeting between senior military police officers and the deputy chief of the Army that set out an intention to close Northmoor. He said he was “surprised to see it written down” but that it explained pressure investigators felt.
Northmoor never produced charges. Alan Pughsley, a former chief constable serving as an expert witness to the inquiry, has previously called the decision to close the operation premature while major lines of inquiry remained open.
The Ministry of Defence has said the incidents were subject to extensive RMP investigation. The inquiry, chaired by Lord Justice Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, is examining whether SAS personnel murdered detainees between 2010 and 2013 and whether officials covered up the circumstances. Williams’s evidence marked the first time investigators who ran the military police probes have testified in public sessions.