Original sentence: This order - which Kitchener later denied issuing - led to the famous Breaker Morant case, in which several soldiers, including the celebrated horseman and bush poet Lt
Edited sentence: After the trial, there was an attempt made by Kitchener and the British Army to cover up the affair.The defence barrister for Morant, Handcock and Witton, Major JF Thomas, a small time barrister with no courts-martial experience, was given only one day to prepare for the case and all witnesses that might have exonerated the trio were suddenly and conveniently transferred by Kitchener to other inaccessible parts of the British Empire.The trial and execution remain controversial, especially in Australia, where it is widely believed that the court-martial was a sham, rigged for a predetermined conviction, that Kitchener disappeared on tour immediately following the trial in order to prevent a last-minute appeal, and that Morant and Handcock were scapegoats who unfairly took the blame for the killings in order to cover up the extent of Kitchener's no prisoners policy.This incident placed a dishonourable stain upon Kitchener's record.This order - which Kitchener later denied issuing - led to the famous Breaker Morant case, in which several Australian soldiers, including the celebrated horseman and bush poet Lt.This situation has been exacerbated by the mysterious and unexplained loss of the court-martial documents relating to the case, leaving only a book, Scapegoats of the Empire, written by one of the defendants who survived the trial, George Witton, as primary evidence of the proceedings