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Briton accused of Iraq murders 'very poorly'
Chris Laker14 Aug 2009
A former British soldier accused of shooting dead two colleagues in Iraq was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and should never have been given a job as a private security guard in the country, his family said today.
Danny Fitzsimons, 29, was arrested by Iraqi police after the attack in Baghdad's International Zone last Sunday which left two fellow ArmorGroup employees dead and a third injured.
He faces a possible death penalty in Iraq for the alleged double murder.
It also emerged Fitzsimons was facing a possible jail term in Britain and has a conviction for firearms offences.
His family said the ex-paratrooper, who served eight years in the forces, was tormented by his experiences in Kosovo and Iraq and should never have been given clearance to work for a security
firm in Baghdad.
In an interview with The Independent, Michael Fitzsimons, 26, described how at night his brother would pace the floor, screaming so loudly he woke his neighbours.
He also recalled his brother sobbing as he spoke of the child's head he had found in Kosovo, picking up bits of his friend's brain in Iraq and the faces of those he had killed.
"He used to be intelligent, mischievous and funny with a great sense of humour," he said. "I was looking at my brother who I loved to bits but I was frightened of him. He was volatile, lost and lonely.
"He would say, 'I am f..... up. I am gone. I have had a pistol in my hand with one in the chamber and I have been close (to suicide)'. He said to me: 'I won't make it past 30. I will either get shot out there or kill myself."'
It emerged that Fitzsimons had pulled a flare gun on children and fired it into the air to scare them off at his home in Middleton, Greater Manchester.
He 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.
The two men he is accused of murdering were Paul McGuigan, from Scotland, and Australian Darren Hoare. Another ArmorGroup employee, Arkhan Mahdi, was shot and wounded during the incident.
Mr McGuigan, 37, a former Royal Marine Commando from Peebles-shire in the Scottish Borders, had one son and was about to become a father for a second time.
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 behind three children with his partner Mollyjoe.
Fitzsimons - who could become the first Westerner to face an Iraqi trial on murder charges since an agreement giving foreign workers immunity was lifted - has claimed he reached for his gun during a drunken brawl.
His father Eric and stepmother Liz, both teachers, fear their son will be fast-tracked through the Iraqi court system and face execution to avoid causing embarrassment to the private security industry.
Mrs Fitzsimons said: "We feel deeply for the two men who were shot and their families but there is a third victim in this. He is very, very poorly. He should not have got a paid post working for a private security firm.
"All we want is for ArmorGroup to fund a good lawyer to get our British legal team out there and to help us be there for him in court. I hate to think how frightened he must feel now."
Reader views (3)
I know someone else who has severe PTSD after Kosovo: pretty much, the MOD didn't acknowledge it was a problem then so they got little help - the situation has apparently improved for subsequent campaigns. It's much, much harder to get sympathy for an injury no-one can physically see.
- Roz, France, 14/08/2009 16:40
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Dave,London NW
Very well said, but I bet we can all guess the answer.
- P Staker, London, 14/08/2009 10:20
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Will the foreign office go to the same lengths to repatriate this person as they do Nigerian drug smuglers.
- Dave, London NW, 14/08/2009 09:51
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