Canada

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Paul Ravensdale, a retired soldier convicted in a deadly training accident in February 2010 in Afghanistan, enters his sentencing hearing with a family member at CFB Shilo, Man., Tuesday, March 5, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

A military prosecutor is seeking a four-year prison sentence for a former warrant officer who led a deadly training exercise in Afghanistan.

Maj. Tony Tamburro told a sentencing hearing Wednesday Paul Ravensdale completely failed to protect soldiers while testing C-19 anti-personnel mines on a weapons range near Kandahar city three years ago.

"This is a weapon of war," Tamburro said. "It's designed to do one thing and one thing only, and that is kill."

"(The soldiers) had the right to assume their superiors would take care of them. Tragically, as we now know, they were in harm's way," Tamburro said.

Ravensdale, who is now retired, was convicted last month by a court martial of four charges including breach of duty causing death, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

He was leading a test of the mines on Feb 12, 2010 when one misfired, sending hundreds of steel ball bearings backward instead of forward. The projectiles killed Cpl. Josh Baker and injured four other soldiers.

Ravensdale was convicted for ignoring safety rules that require soldiers to be at least 100 metres behind a C-19 mine unless they are shielded in a dugout, a vehicle or by some other barrier.