From trooping the colour to marching powder - how a Corby Grenadier Guard sunk into drug dealing after he was set on fire in a layby

He’s done two tours of Afghanistan, taken part in trooping the colour, and was a regular at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace where his role was to protect Queen Elizabeth II.

But when Darryl Richard Marshall appeared at court yesterday (Tuesday, May 30), the royal coat of arms was displayed on the wall behind him for a very different reason.

His barrister James Smith-Wilds told the tale of how his client, a ‘Corby lad’ who now lives in Sackville Street, Kettering, had descended from wearing the famous bearskin as a part of the country’s most senior infantry unit, to dealing drugs to his friends and acquaintances.

He was handed a six year sentence for his part in a major drug dealing network that saw drugs couriered from Liverpool to Northamptonshire during 2020 and 2021.

Northampton Crown Court heard how Marshall, 35, who has seven children, left school aged 16 with no qualifications but joined the prestigious Grenadier Guards aged 18.

During his decade as a soldier, he completed two tours of Afghanistan and was a part of the trooping of the colour parade.

But one night, he was travelling from the family home in Corby to Aldershot wearing his camouflage greens and he stopped to urinate in a layby. He was doused in petrol and set on fire. He suffered 15 per cent burns and spent 54 days in hospital.

While there, he took ketamine for the pain and ended up being sectioned after a suicide attempt.

Barrister James Smith-Wilds said: “He was medically discharged from the army because of his injuries.

"He left the army still having to deal with the pain. He was told he was suffering from PTSD.

"He started to use cocaine. He was self-medicating and was using in excess of one gram a day. He could not afford the usage at that amount.

"It wasn’t a financial thing for him. He supplied into a small group of people that he knew.

"No-one’s selling it for him, no-one’s couriering it for him. It’s his own enterprise.”

In 2021 his house was raided and police found a metal press, used for pressing cocaine into bricks after it has been cut. They also found a knuckle duster and a taser, for which he has already received a community order.

The court heard how, after he was caught, his partner gave him a ‘me or the cocaine’ ultimatum and he managed to get himself a full-time job putting up fairground equipment. He worked away during the week to help him stay away from drugs.

Mr Smith-Wilds added: “He greatly regrets his actions. He can’t believe how stupid he was in that he didn’t listen to all those friends and all the help he had when he left the army. He particularly regrets the pain he has put his partner through.”

His Honour Judge David Herbert said: “It’s a sad tale.” He gave him a reduced sentence to reflect his mitigation including his ten years in the forces.