Slaughtered by savages
By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor
THE full savagery of the slaughter of six Red Caps was revealed in horrific detail yesterday.
Families of the massacred Military Police broke down and sobbed as their injuries were listed on the second day of an inquest.
Relatives heard how the trapped patrol were shot, punched, beaten and kicked by a mob of 300 frenzied Iraqis.
Forensic evidence suggested some of the men were finally executed at point-blank range in the town of Majar al Kabir on June 24, 2003.
The sickening catalogue of violence left several family members attending yesterday’s hearing inconsolable.
Two women ran from the Oxford court in tears while several fathers cried openly.
Most injuries were inflicted on the youngest victim, 20-year-old Lance Corporal Tom Keys, who was probably killed with a shot to the temple while curled up clutching his legs.
The ex-Para may have been first tortured by being held down and shot in the shins before suffering 31 bullet wounds and cuts and bruises all over his body.
Pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt told how he had found heavy bruising to the genitals of patrol commander Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell.
The 41-year-old was hit by at least 14 bullets, most at an angle that indicated he was already lying on the ground.
Corporal Russ Aston, whose widow Anna attended the hearing, was hit by at least 13 bullets and suffered 28 entry and exit wounds.
Cpl Aston, 30, was shot four times through the neck and also in the forehead, right cheek, shoulder, chest, armpit, stomach, thigh and hip.
A fourth MP, Corporal Simon Miller, 21, was shot three times in the chest at point-blank range. He suffered multiple other bullet wounds, was punched in the head and hit in the chest by a rifle butt.
All the men — from 156 Provost Company based in Colchester, Essex — were thought to have been shot with 7.62mm Kalashnikov assault rifles.
After the hearing L/Cpl Keys’ father Reg, who attended with Cpl Aston’s dad Mike and Cpl Miller’s dad John, said: “It’s the worst possible scenario because I had always hoped Thomas died painlessly.”
There was high drama inside and out of the court when families clashed with Dr Hunt, one of three Home Office pathologists involved, over his use of photos of the dead Red Caps during a conference.
Sgt Hamilton-Jewell’s brother Tony confronted him in the street demanding an apology.
Post mortem reports will be heard today on the other MPs, Corporal Paul Long, 24, and Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23.
*PARACHUTE Regiment hero Captain Richard Holmes, 28, blown up in Iraq two weeks ago, was buried yesterday with full military honours near Andover, Hampshire.
thesun.co.uk
By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor
THE full savagery of the slaughter of six Red Caps was revealed in horrific detail yesterday.
Families of the massacred Military Police broke down and sobbed as their injuries were listed on the second day of an inquest.
Relatives heard how the trapped patrol were shot, punched, beaten and kicked by a mob of 300 frenzied Iraqis.
Forensic evidence suggested some of the men were finally executed at point-blank range in the town of Majar al Kabir on June 24, 2003.
The sickening catalogue of violence left several family members attending yesterday’s hearing inconsolable.
Two women ran from the Oxford court in tears while several fathers cried openly.
Most injuries were inflicted on the youngest victim, 20-year-old Lance Corporal Tom Keys, who was probably killed with a shot to the temple while curled up clutching his legs.
The ex-Para may have been first tortured by being held down and shot in the shins before suffering 31 bullet wounds and cuts and bruises all over his body.
Pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt told how he had found heavy bruising to the genitals of patrol commander Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell.
The 41-year-old was hit by at least 14 bullets, most at an angle that indicated he was already lying on the ground.
Corporal Russ Aston, whose widow Anna attended the hearing, was hit by at least 13 bullets and suffered 28 entry and exit wounds.
Cpl Aston, 30, was shot four times through the neck and also in the forehead, right cheek, shoulder, chest, armpit, stomach, thigh and hip.
A fourth MP, Corporal Simon Miller, 21, was shot three times in the chest at point-blank range. He suffered multiple other bullet wounds, was punched in the head and hit in the chest by a rifle butt.
All the men — from 156 Provost Company based in Colchester, Essex — were thought to have been shot with 7.62mm Kalashnikov assault rifles.
After the hearing L/Cpl Keys’ father Reg, who attended with Cpl Aston’s dad Mike and Cpl Miller’s dad John, said: “It’s the worst possible scenario because I had always hoped Thomas died painlessly.”
There was high drama inside and out of the court when families clashed with Dr Hunt, one of three Home Office pathologists involved, over his use of photos of the dead Red Caps during a conference.
Sgt Hamilton-Jewell’s brother Tony confronted him in the street demanding an apology.
Post mortem reports will be heard today on the other MPs, Corporal Paul Long, 24, and Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23.
*PARACHUTE Regiment hero Captain Richard Holmes, 28, blown up in Iraq two weeks ago, was buried yesterday with full military honours near Andover, Hampshire.
thesun.co.uk
