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Briton on Iraq murder charge could face UK jail term
Ben Bailey12 Aug 2009
A former British soldier accused of murdering two colleagues in Iraq was facing a possible jail term in Britain and has a conviction for firearms offences, it emerged today.
Ex-paratrooper Danny Fitzsimons, 29, is accused of shooting dead two fellow private security guards in Baghdad on Sunday.
He faces a possible death penalty in Iraq for the alleged double murder.
Today it emerged Fitzsimons, said to have been tormented after serving eight years in the forces, had pulled a gun on children while at his home in Middleton, Greater Manchester.
Neighbours said Fitzsimons turned on teenagers causing trouble outside the run-down ground-floor council flat where the former soldier lived while on leave from his security job in Iraq.
He pulled a flare gun and fired it into the air to scare the children off.
Fitzsimons was convicted of a public order offence over the incident, on April 1 this year, and had yet to be sentenced at Bolton Crown Court.
And he was given a suspended sentence in November last year for firearms offences after being found in possession of prohibited ammunition - believed to be 5.5mm tapered Nato issue bullets.
Fitzsimons, who worked for private security firm ArmorGroup Iraq, is now in jail in Baghdad and could be the first foreigner publicly executed in the country.
At the flats in Middleton Fitzsimons' next door neighbour described the ex-Para as "polite and pleasant" but said there was also a darker side to him.
"We knew he had been to Iraq and seen some unpleasant things, because he told us he was in the Army.
"I did hear from another neighbour that he was young to leave the Army, we don't know why, and apart from the forces didn't know anything else.
"He tried to get back in, but they wouldn't let him - something wrong up here, mental problems.
"You wouldn't really see that much of him round here, just now and again when he was back home and he would say hello.
"He was always pleasant and polite and no trouble to me."
Fitzsimons has reportedly told police in Iraq he was drunk when he got into a fight and pulled his gun in self-defence, leaving Scotsman Paul McGuigan and Australian Darren Hoare dead.
He was arrested shortly after the incident in Baghdad's International Zone on Sunday morning.
Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf has said he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted of murder.
A former British soldier who had worked alongside Fitzsimons said he had a history of violent conduct which "should have precluded him from being hired".
Mr McGuigan, a 37-year-old father-of-one, served as a Royal Marine before starting work as a security guard in Iraq in 2003.
His partner, who has not been named, is expecting his child.
A colleague described him as "a man mountain".
Mr McGuigan attended Peebles High School before leaving the Borders town when he joined the Royal Marines in 1990.
It is understood his father now lives in Ireland while his mother Corinne, who ran a travel agency, has moved away from the area.
Mr Hoare, 37, from Queensland, served in Iraq as a member of the Royal Australian Air Force before starting work as a private security contractor.
He leaves three children with his partner Mollyjoe.
Fitzsimons' father, Eric, a former teacher, from Whitworth, Rochdale told BBC News his son should be tried in the UK and he was suffering from psychiatric stress following his experiences serving in Iraq.
"He had seen loads of IED explosions at the side of the road and seen loads and loads of his friends killed."
In January last year Fitzsimons posted a message on a Facebook page set up to honour fallen service personnel in which he wrote of the many friends he had lost during his three-and-a-half years in private security work.
Addressing soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wrote: "Stay Safe and to those who will return to fight a different battle ... A war inside your head ... A mental fight which will be tougher to win than any fight you've ever been in before ... To those of you ... Fight-through ... Keep your Brothers by your side and never give up ... You are not alone..! Danny Fitzsimons Ex-2 Para."
On his MySpace website Fitzsimons listed his interests as "Hedonism, booze and drugs".
The shooting comes two months after five Americans were arrested in connection with the stabbing of fellow contractor James Kitterman from Houston. They were later taken into US custody.
Amnesty International UK media director Mike Blakemore said Fitzsimons should not be placed above the law but that his organisation would oppose the application of the death penalty.
Reader views (3)
How truly awful for the children left fatherless - especially the poor spouse who is pregnant: my heart goes out to them.
- Roz, France, 13/08/2009 09:40
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i don't think so. unlike Laos the Iraqi's don't really give a stuff about what we have to say and if you think their going to let a load of UK diplomats tell them what to do i think they will be in for a nasty shock......
i don't think we will see him for a long time.
- Jonny, London, 12/08/2009 15:01
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Let the law of the land prevail. How much will it cost to keep him in jail here for 7 years.
- Diplomat, Battersea, 12/08/2009 12:11
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