British soldiers found guilty of Iraq abuse
Two British soldiers were found guilty today of abusing Iraqi civilian prisoners at an aid camp in Basra.
Mark Cooley and Daniel Kenyon were convicted by a panel of seven officers at a court martial in Germany.
The abuse by the soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was captured in shocking photographs which were published worldwide after they were used in evidence at the trial.
What they showed was described by the judge in charge of the court martial as “brutal”, “cruel” and “revolting” behaviour by soldiers which had “undoubtedly tarnished the international reputation of the British army and to some extent the British nation too”.
Kenyon was found guilty of aiding and abetting another soldier Lance Corporal Darren Larkin to assault a prisoner.
Mark Cooley, a lance corporal in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was also convicted by a panel of seven senior officers.
Cooley was found guilty two charges, one of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind after he drove a forklift truck with a bound Iraqi suspended from the prongs.
The second charge against Cooley was that he posed for a photograph as though about to punch a prisoner.
Kenyon was convicted of three charges – aiding and abetting Larkin to assault a prisoner, prejudicing good order and military discipline by failing to report Cooley for the forklift truck incident and failing to report that soldiers under his command had forced two naked prisoners to simulate sex.
Kenyon and Cooley could face a term of imprisonment of up to two years, the judge advocate Michael Hunter said.
The judge advocate also indicated that Larkin, who has already pleaded guilty to assaulting an Iraqi prisoner, faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
Sentencing, which will be determined jointly by the judge advocate and the panel of officers, is expected on Friday morning.
