British war criminal ‘plainly enjoyed’ abuse

Agencies

A court martial has heard the first British soldier ever to be convicted of a war crime used to enjoy beating Iraqi prisoners in custody until they were a “choir” of pain.

Prosecutor Julian Bevan QC said Corporal Donald Payne abused prisoners in front of visitors without fear of repercussion.

“Cpl Payne plainly enjoyed conducting what he called ‘the choir’,” Mr Bevan said.

“The choir consisted of Cpl Payne systematically assaulting each detainee in turn by, for instance, hitting in their stomachs, kicking them and punching them wherever on their bodies, causing them to shriek out or groan in pain, their various noises constituting the music,” he said on the second day of a court martial at Bulford Camp, Salisbury.

Payne, 35, from the Duke of Lancaster’s regiment pleaded guilty yesterday to the inhumane treatment of Iraqi detainees, making him the first British soldier ever to be convicted of a war crime.

He faces further charges of the manslaughter of Baha Mousa, 26, and intending to pervert the court of justice but denies them.

Six other soldiers are also standing trial for offences relating to the systematic abuse of prisoners held after raids on hotels suspected of harbouring insurgents in Basra, southern Iraq, in September 2003.

Mr Mousa, a hotel receptionist, was picked up in the raids and later died from 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, while in British custody. The court watched a tape of Payne letting loose a string of expletives while trying to force hooded Iraqi prisoners into a “stress” position - backs against a wall and arms outstretched in front.

Mr Bevan said the video “provided an insight” into Payne’s conduct and attitude.

The court heard that another detainee, Kifah Taha Mutairi, dubbed “grandad” because he was the oldest in the group, was singled out for particular abuse by Payne, who was seen by another soldier kicking the man in excess of 30 times, generally in the torso.

The man spent the following two months in hospital being treated for renal failure and later died, but not as a result of the injuries.

The court also heard that Lance Corporal Wayne Crowcroft, 22, admitted during a drunken conversation that he was worried about the investigation into the treatment of Mr Mousa, because “we all kicked him to death”.

L/Cpl Crowcroft, facing the war crime of inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians, is alleged to have told a fellow soldier his concerns at a Cyprus bar two years after Mr Mousa’s death.