British Iraq abuse case soldiers jailed

February 25, 2005 The three British soldiers in the centre of an Iraqi abuse scandal have been jailed for between 140 days and two years and all three have been dismissed from the army. L/Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, Cpl Daniel Kenyon, 33, and L/Cpl Darren Larkin, 30, assaulted a number of Iraqi prisoners in Camp Bread Basket, near Basra.

Gen Sir Michael Jackson said that he wanted to, "place on record how appalled and disappointed I was when I first saw those photographs at the outset of the trial", and has said he apologised "to those Iraqis who were abused" and to Iraq as whole.

The men said they felt they were scapegoats as they felt they were other soldiers in the abuse and one of the men's lawyers said there was, "a significant number of other soldiers, including many senior to him, some of whom have been promoted, were involved in the mistreatment of Iraqis that day".

In a separate court martial last year, the soldier who took the photos used as evidence in the trial, Gary Bartlam, admitted taking photographs of the Iraqis simulating sex acts. He was sentenced to 18 months in a youth detention centre and disgracefully discharged from the British Army.