London is beginning to return to normal after Wednesday's horrific attack. I hopped on to the tube in the morning to head towards the Royal Courts of Justice for what we all hoped would be the final hearing for former RM Sergeant Alexander Blackman. Hundreds of his former comrades had all come to support his extraordinary wife, Claire, who has somehow come through these past few years stronger than ever. As I walked into the imposing court, I called Claire to discover she was already inside. Former RMs and the press waited outside. At about 1015 we all filed into Court 4, which we are beginning to get to know rather well. At 1030 on the dot, the five judges walked in and took their seats. First the prosecution. They were put on the spot when it came to the question of how the judges should deal with the military aspect of this case. For example, would Al be discharged, with disgrace or not, or could be possibly remain in the RMs, a thought that had not crossed anyone's mind until now. All this was possible, of course, because the verdict had been changed from murder to manslaughter with diminished responsibility. Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas wanted to know how they could deal with the military side of this case and it was eventually decided that it would be handed over to the Royal Navy to deal with. Meanwhile, the judges could and would decide what the sentence would be. After that QC Jonathan Goldberg addressed the court, delivering mitigation with expertise. He struck exactly the right note, I thought, and the panel of judges listened carefully to his every word. He called Claire as a character witness and she did superbly, as always, speaking clearly and confidently about her beloved husband. After about 90 minutes the judges left the court to decide when they would deliver their verdict. They returned after about 15 minutes to say that due to the extra papers handed into them they needed more time to deliberate and would finally sentence Al on Tuesday morning. There was a collective groan from all those in the court. Yet another delay to justice. Afterwards we all piled out into the spring sunshine, where Claire made a short statement to the waiting press. She then went off with Al's legal team to the QC's Chambers, while I headed back to the Commons. We are so nearly there and on Tuesday next week we will finally know whether our campaign has paid off. I can see no logical reason for keeping Al in jail any longer and I think it would be perverse and cruel to both him and Claire if indeed he has to spend more time in prison. After catching up on constituency matters and correspondence, I headed back to Dorset for the weekend.