A BRITISH soldier has been dismissed from the army after stabbing a 10-year-old boy in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province after a night of heavy drinking.

The Press Association reports that Grenadier Guardsman Daniel Crook was treated by army medics after drinking heavily the night before the incident. His rifle had been confiscated as a precaution, but when his unit went on patrol the following day, he armed himself with a bayonet and grenades and followed the patrol.

The boy reportedly approached him to ask for chocolate and the soldier warned him to stop before grabbing him and stabbing him in the back. He later said he did not understand why he had done it.

After his courtmartial earlier this year, Crook was sentenced to 18 months in prison and dismissed from the army.

The Guardian reports that it traced the child’s father. He told the newspaper that the 10-year-old has still not returned to school since the March 2010 attack and he can no longer ride his bike or run errands for the family. He also said the family has not received an apology from the British forces for the attack.

In the UN’s half-year report on Afghan civilian casualties in July 2011, the organisation said that 15 per cent more civilians had been killed in the Afghan conflict in the first half of this year than last year. The organisation blamed insurgents for four out of every fives deaths.

However, the Crook case is the latest in a string of abuses reportedly committed by coalition forces serving in Afghanistan; the British military has investigated at least 99 incidents in which their troops were accused of attacking civilians between January 2005 and March 2011.