'Exceptional' Royal Navy sailor cleared of GBH after using self-defence in Gosport confrontation

Warrant officer Darren Wearing MBE, who led the Royal Navy at Prince Philip’s funeral last month, was found not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to former physical training instructor Mark Brocklesby.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard the pair came face to face outside the home of a woman - then WO1 Wearing’s fiancee and Mr Brocklesby’s ex-partner - in Lapwing Close, Gosport in July 2019.

Mr Wearing, who has nearly 30 years’ unblemished service without a single scrape on his record, said he was acting in self-defence when he pushed the man twice.

The veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen told jurors he acted after Mr Brocklesby’s jaw had clenched and he puffed himself up.

Fearing he would be assaulted, the HMS Collingwood-based sailor pushed him twice open-palmed, and Mr Brocklesby fell, rolling his ankle and breaking it.

Jurors deliberated for five hours and 14 minutes on Friday before returning not guilty verdicts to a GBH charge and an alternative of occasioning actual bodily harm.

As Mr Wearing broke down, Recorder Elisabeth Bussey-Jones told him: ‘You leave the dock with the same intact exemplary record you had previously.’

As reported, the decorated sailor is ‘trusted by the very head of the Royal Navy,’ deals with members of the royal family and was ‘hand-selected’ for his role as state ceremonial training officer for the senior service.

In that position, held since 2015, he led the naval contingent onto the quadrangle for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.

He previously, in 2017, bore intense scrutiny preparing sailors for their historic first in taking sentry duty at royal palaces, including Buckingham Palace. He also led sailors in the D-Day 75 commemorations.

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During his three-day trial jurors heard Mr Wearing has an excellent reputation across the armed services and offers ‘exceptional’ leadership.

He strongly denied the allegations throughout and told jurors he was not aggressive - being backed up on this by Commander Nicola Cripps.

She told the court on Thursday he ‘doesn’t get angry’.

The court heard the confrontation came about after Mr Wearing accused his former friend of 18 years of lying over a ‘court battle’ involving money.

Mr Wearing is no longer engaged to Mr Brocklesby’s former partner, the court heard.

The warrant officer comes from a naval family and has previously spoken about being heavily tattooed.

He was made an MBE in October last year for ‘demonstrating selfless dedication and delivering the highest ceremonial standards, bringing credit to the Royal Navy and United Kingdom’.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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