Soldier riven by professional and personal problems

A diverging portrait of the US Army sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers is emerging as records and interviews show a man appreciated by friends and family who won military commendations, yet faced professional disappointment, financial trouble and brushes with the law.

The deeper picture included details of how Robert Bales was bypassed for promotion, struggled to pay for his house and eyed a way out of his job at a Washington state military base months before he was accused of the nighttime slaughter in two Afghanistan villages.

While Bales, 38, sat in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas’s military prison on Saturday, classmates and neighbours from suburban Cincinnati, Ohio, remembered him as a “happy-go-lucky” high school football player who took care of a special needs child.