· Security contractor admits shooting two men dead
· Text messages to Guardian detail events of August 2009
A former British soldier facing the death penalty in Iraq for allegedly murdering two fellow
security contractors has given his first detailed account of the killings to the Guardian,
admitting to shooting both dead but insisting he acted in self-defence.
Daniel Fitzsimons sent a series of messages to this newspaper detailing the events of last August
in Baghdad's green zone that led him to become the first foreigner to face justice in Iraq since
the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Fitzsimons told the Guardian that he shot one of the men, former Royal Marine Paul McGuigan, from
Innerleithen in Scotland, three times as McGuigan allegedly pointed an assault rifle at him.
He says the second victim, Darren Hoare, from Australia, was killed during a fight that followed.
All three men had been contracted to work as guards for the British security firm ArmorGroup.
Fitzsimons – who faces two counts of murder and one of the attempted murder of
an Iraqi guard – and his lawyers claim he acted in self-defence and was
suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder following a previous tour of Iraq and
service in the military.
His lawyers, who are aware of his admission to the Guardian, claim he should never have been
allowed to work for a security company given his condition and record.
This defence is disputed by relatives of McGuigan, who say Fitzsimons is trying to escape justice
by concocting a story of a drunken fight when none occurred.
Fitzsimons disclosed his version of the events of 8 August last year through a series of text
messages. In the first, he reveals he was with a group using the internet in a colleagues' room.
The meeting spiralled into a series of drunken brawls.
Fitzsimmons wrote that he was "drinking Grants whiskey" and "chatting on MSN to friends in
country and back home. Paul McGuigan came into the room, pissed out of his skull. He was being a
knob, having a go at me and slating some of my pals. I had enuf [sic] and punched him once on the
nose. He was shocked and didn't retaliate ... We shook hands. I held a towel to his bloody nose.
Drank more. Started on me again, telling me to punch him again. He was unstable, not me. This
went on, hot and cold. Darren came in ..."
Fitzsimons said he, McGuigan and Hoare had made numerous visits to each other's rooms throughout
the night, with tensions escalating each time. He claims the evening spilled over into violence
when both men came to his room after he passed out from drinking half a bottle of whiskey.
"Paul punched me repeatedly," his texts say. "I fought savagely to get out of bed. Managed to get
out, but ended up on the floor being stomped on. I lost consciousness for a few seconds. Heard
Paul shout: 'We're going to fucking kill you, you little ....' I was getting it from both of
them."
"Paul grabbed my M4, which I had been scattered away from my assault vest and armor. He cocked
the weapon. I pulled the glock from my vest chambered a round. Paul had already told me he was
gonna kill me now he had my M4 in his shoulder. I shot him three times in the chest. After the
first shot he was still standing. I double tapped and put a further two into him. he was dead
before he hit the ground. In slow motion I saw the life leave his body."
He said Hoare then "went for the glock" and a struggle ensued. "We were like animals ...The booze
had rushed rnd my body so quick coz of the fighting. The exact events at this point are blotchy
at best. I remember blackness then madness. I know I fought for control of the pistol with Darren
and I know I gained control and he was shot at point blank I'm sure. We were literally wrapped
together arms and legs. Fighting and biting when the shots were fired."
Fitzsimons had only been in Iraq for three days on a third tour as a private security contractor
since leaving the British army. He had spent seven months in prison in 2007 on a charge of being
in possession of illegal ammunition. He had been receiving psychiatric treatment since 2004, when
he was still in the army. He was consulted again in May 2008 and June 2009, with a psychiatrist
confirming his condition had worsened each time. The last diagnosis was made two months before he
was hired to return to Iraq.
Clive Stafford Smith, director of the charity Reprieve, which is helping with Fitzsimons'
defence, told the Guardian: "As a British soldier, in the service of his country in Kosovo, Danny
came across the dissected body parts of a young boy who had been bringing the troops bread,
floating in the water supply. After this and other horrors, it is hardly surprising that he
suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. It is unfathomable that ArmorGroup would dispatch
him to a war zone without a proper screening, and one must wonder who ultimately bears the
greatest responsibility for the tragedy that followed."
Fitzsimons's account of the night is at odds with a statement provided by McGuigan's former
fiance, Nicola Prestage, who claims shespoke to McGuigan via webcam for most of the night from
5:30pm. "We eventually said goodbye and logged off at 12.03am," she said in a statement. "Paul
was murdered at approximately 1.15am in an unprovoked attack."
The confession also appears to conflict with the account ofJohn Pollard, the British coroner who
received McGuigan's body in the UKa month after the incident. He said: "There were no injuries on
his body which might have revealed he had been involved in a physical altercation."
In response to questions by the Guardian, ArmorGroup said: "We confirmed publicly on 15 September
that, in this particular case, although there was evidence that Mr Fitzsimons falsified
information during the recruitment process, his screening was not completed in line with the
company's procedures.
"We received two separate medical documents which certified that Mr Fitzsimons was fit to work in
Iraq. It has subsequently come to light that the most recent of those documents was forged
– we have reason to believe it was forged by Mr Fitzsimons."
Prestage continued: "The fact they were not shot from close range rules out any notion of
self-defence. Paul was sat on one side of the room on a chair and Darren was sat on the other
side of the room on a bed. Paul was shot through the heart, the chest and through the mouth, and
Darren was shot from behind, through his legs and through his temple.
Three weeks later, without the man I loved, I gave birth to his daughter, a beautiful baby girl
who will never see her daddy, or receive a cuddle from him. I live a life sentence every minute
of every day without Paul, and not fully enjoying our daughter. Everything she does is tinged
with sadness knowing her daddy will never get to experience her.
"Can I claim I have PTSD living through this? I think not."
Fitzsimons has been sent by a Baghdad court for further psychiatric evaluation. His trial will
resume on 7 April.
Martin Chulovguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use
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