Two British soldiers found guilty of Iraqi abuse

A court martial in Germany has found two UK soldiers guilty of abusing Iraqi detainees at a camp in Basra.

Both Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, 25, and Corporal Daniel Kenyon, 33, had denied the charges, which related to incidents at the Basra detention camp, nicknamed 'Camp Bread Basket', in May 2003.

L/Cpl Mark Cooley was found guilty of two charges – one of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind, for driving a forklift truck with a bound Iraqi suspended from the prongs, and another in relation to posing as if about to throw a punch at a detainee in a photograph.

Cpl Kenyon, the most senior soldier of the trio, was convicted of three charges – aiding and abetting L/Cpl Larkin to assault a prisoner, failure to report L/Cpl Cooley's conduct for suspending the detainee from the prongs of the forklift truck and failure to report that soldiers under his command had forced two naked Iraqis to simulate having intercourse.

Both Cooley and Kenyon face possible terms of up to two years for the offences.

Another soldier, Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, 30, who admitted a charge of assault after he was photographed standing on top of an Iraqi detainee, faces a possible custodial sentence of six months.

Charges were brought against the three soldiers, all from the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, after another soldier took a camera film containing photographs of the abuse to a shop Tamworth.

The court martial was held in Osnabrueck, Germany. Sentencing has been deferred until Friday pending reports.

(KMcA/SP)