Ex-Beckham bodyguard shot dead in massacre at home of Iraqi lover

Former Royal Marine Brian Tilley was blasted to death along with five Iraqi civilians while he was staying with his girlfriend in a notorious neighbourhood in Baghdad.

The gunmen, dressed in Iraqi police uniform, burst into the property looking for the 47-year-old.

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Mr Tilley, who served in the elite Special Boat Service (SBS), the sister unit of the SAS, was shot in the foot before being dragged into the kitchen where he was tortured and beaten.

He was then sprayed with a volley of bullets which hit him in the shoulder, back and stomach. After his death it emerged he had been a close confidant of the Beckhams.

Mr Tilley, 47, was working as a British security worker when he was murdered in the lawless al-Dawrah district of Baghdad on May 14 2004.

The only surviving witness to the ambush was a 15-year-old Iraqi girl known as Sarah, who told American military police the gunmen were wearing Iraqi police uniforms.

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Mr Tilley was dragged into the kitchen where he was beaten and then shot three times in the back and once in the stomach, Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset Coroner's Court heard.

The gunmen then shot the rest of the occupants, who included Sarah, her mother and her mother's boyfriend, her aunt, and two female friends, one of whom was Tilley's girlfriend Iman.

Despite being shot in the head, the teenager survived the ordeal, the inquest sitting in Bournemouth heard.

US Army captain Katherine Brennan, from the military police, told the inquest that Iraqi police officers were dragging their feet on the investigation into the massacre.

"We were there to make sure they did their job correctly," she said.

There were numerous rumours, including one that the house was a brothel, which could not be substantiated, and another that the gunmen were robbers, and cash and gold was stolen from the house.

But Captain Brennan said: "When we found out Sarah was at a local hospital, we immediately brought the Iraqi police doing the investigation to the hospital.

"Once we found Sarah, she was very nervous of the Iraqi police. She didn't want anything to do with them."

She added: "She had said they came in Iraqi police uniforms."

Captain Brennan said Iraqi police officers had been known to commit crimes themselves, but equally, police uniforms were stolen or bought by criminals.

But Sarah picked out five serving Iraqi police officers from the same police station out of more than 200 images.

They later repeated the process, showing her pictures including officers from another station and she picked out the same five men.

Captain Brennan said there was no hesitation and added: "It seemed like she definitely knew who these guys were."

Deputy Coroner Jonathan Morrissey said: "So, a potential explanation as to why the Iraqi police didn't want to investigate."

Capt Brennan agreed with that statement.

Retired detective superintendent Phil James, who investigated on behalf of Dorset Police, said the fact that Sarah had twice picked out the men amidst an array of pictures would be "credible evidence" to show a UK court that these men were involved.