The father of a Scots hostage believed to have been killed by his Iraqi kidnappers claims the British government has his son’s blood on its hands.

Acknowledging for the first time that his son Alan is probably dead, Dennis McMenemy, from Dumbarton, said he blamed his son’s fate on the Foreign Office’s “scandalous” handling of the crisis. Alan McMenemy, 34, was one of four British security guards kidnapped in Iraq 31 months ago with Peter Moore, the IT consultant were guarding.

Moore was freed last week after the Americans released a senior Shi’ite cleric to the Iraqi authorities. The body of Alan McMenemy is expected to be handed over when Qais al-Khazali, leader of the kidnappers’ hardline Islamic sect, is freed, possibly within days.

The bodies of the three of other bodyguards — Alec MacLachlan, 30, from Llanelli, South Wales, Jason Swindlehurst, 38, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, and Jason Creswell, 39, originally from Glasgow — were passed to UK authorities last year.

Despite the government’s denials, Dennis McMenemy believes Alan died because the Foreign Office botched negotiations with the kidnappers.

“In the back of my mind I know it’s going to be a body that is returned,” he said. “I’m not happy with the British government’s role at all, because they didn’t do enough. If Alan is dead, the British government will have blood on its hands.

“The way this has been handled is a scandal and I don’t know if we will ever get to the bottom of what has gone on.”

McMenemy said he agreed to government requests not to speak publicly about the case because he did not want to jeopardise the negotiations.

However, he said he felt cheated by the Foreign Office, which he accused of “lies, deceit and cover-ups”.

“For two and a half years I have been told to shut up and don’t say this and don’t say that,” said McMenemy. “Well the time has come for me to demand answers. There is no two ways about it, some kind of deal has been done and we haven’t been told, as usual.

“Why does Peter Moore walk out but Alan has still not appeared? Why not the two of them together in return for the cleric? If he is dead, what reason have they got to hang on to a dead body? I need this to be over. It is killing me.”

Sources close to the Righteous League, the kidnappers’ group, said they believed the release of McMenemy’s body was imminent. “Alan is being held back as an assurance that the deal is finally complete with the release of Sheikh Qais,” said a source.

McMenemy, married with two children, worked as a private security guard for the Canadian company GardaWorld and had been based in Iraq since 2003.

The ordeal began in May 2007 as Moore, 39, a computer programmer from Lincoln, was captured with his guards by Shi’ite militants at the finance ministry in Baghdad.

For the Righteous League, Moore was the main prize. However, according to Iraqi sources, the security guards were probably killed because they were regarded as enemy combatants. “In Iraq, nobody differentiates between security guards or military,” said a Shi’ite analyst.

Last night the Foreign Office said Britain did not do deals with kidnappers, and added that the timing of al-Khazali’s transfer and Moore’s release was coincidental.

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