By David Bowden, Defence Correspondent
An SAS officer has told the trial of a former special forces sniper that the guns and ammunition found in his bedroom would be a "gross breach" of unit rules covering firearms.
The officer, known only as soldier Y, was an Adjutant of Sergeant Danny Nightingale's unit.
The court martial heard that Nightingale's housemate, another SAS soldier, known as N, served in Iraq in both 2003 and 2004, but that Nightingale was not deployed there until 2007.
Soldier Y also disclosed that members of the SAS were operating in Iraq in 2001 - two years before the start of the Iraq war - but gave no details and was not questioned about it.
When discussing SAS deployments after the invasion in 2003, Soldier Y agreed with defence counsel William Clegg QC that the unit would deploy around 30 or 40 men at a time and that each man would be responsible for his own kit.
The court has already heard that police found a pistol and more than 300 rounds of ammunition in Nightingale's bedroom when it was searched in September 2011.
The board of five serving soldiers - the military equivalent of the jury in a civil trial - has heard details of "operation plunder" under which the rules for service personnel bringing back war trophies from operations are laid out.
It prohibits the bringing back to the UK of any weapons from theatre without authorisation.
Soldier Y was asked by Prosecutor Timothy Cray that given they were special forces: "Was there any scope for turning a blind eye to ammunition .... was there a special exemption in terms of members of the unit having firearms for their own use that hadn't been issued by the unit?"
The witness replied: "None whatsoever".
The trial has already heard that in initial police interviews Nightingale said he brought the pistol back from Iraq intending to have it decommissioned and presented to his unit as a trophy, but that never happened.
The court martial has on a number of occasions gone into secret sessions with the public and press excluded, to preserve what the sitting judge deems to be sensitive material.
Nightingale has pleaded not guilty to charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.
The court martial continues.
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