A WAR hero accused of abusing captured Iraqi looters fought back tears at his court martial in Germany. Corporal Daniel Kenyon rejected allegations that he was directly involved in aiding and abetting men under his command to humiliate detainees and that he failed to report the abuse.

Accused by Lieutenant-Colonel Nick Clapham of losing confidence in the field, Corporal Kenyon said: “I am telling you I am a soldier stood here now with my uniform on, and there’s no way I would have got involved in this.

“You don’t know who I am if you can turn round and say I was involved. I took it on my chin not to report higher up because the people higher up were ‘beasting’ people around.”

He was referring to a food-aid camp in Iraq that was plagued by pilferers. Troops permanently stationed there allegedly imposed hard labour, beatings and kickings on looters. The corporal said that when he arrived at the camp, he observed detainees who had torn ears, cuts on their heads and blood on their clothes.

He went on: “You are blaming me? No way.” He then told the colonel that if Ellen MacArthur stood before him in a sailor’s uniform and said that she had just sailed 27,000 miles round the world, the colonel would not believe her.

The evidence came at the end of 2½ days in the witness box, during which time the corporal insisted on standing to attention. Corporal Kenyon, 33, was recommended for mention in dispatches after disarming a bomb on a bridge during the war against Saddam Hussein and wears seven ribbons on his chest. He denies four charges. He is accused of two counts of disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind for aiding and abetting other soldiers to force Iraqis to simulate sex acts. He also faces one count of failing to report an incident in which a detainee was slung in a cargo net from the tines of a fork-lift truck, and another of aiding and abetting a comrade to assault a detainee.

Corporal Kenyon was a section commander of Milan Platoon of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. They were called in to assist in Operation Ali Baba, which was devised to capture looters at Camp Bread Basket, the food centre near the city of Basra.

He said that under the regime there, implemented by the camp quartermaster, Major Dan Taylor, looters were “f***** around” and given “a good kicking”. But he told his own section of 12 men that they should not behave in that way. His men had become infected by the environment and were doing “monkey see, monkey do”, but he refused to stand by and allow that to happen, giving his men “bollockings ” for what they had done.

The 70 troops permanently stationed at the camp were breaking the Geneva Conventions by “beasting” and hitting looters, and they lacked moral courage, he said.

The chain of command at the camp had broken down and he would have been laughed at if he had reported what had been going on to more senior NCOs, he said.However, Corporal Kenyon conceded that, with hindsight, he should have reported abuse to his commanding officer, whose name has not been disclosed. The corporal went on to denounce the key witness in the case against him, Fusilier Gary Bartlam, who was convicted at a court martial of charges relating to photographs he took of the abuse of detainees. He gave evidence that he saw Corporal Kenyon present during instances of abuse.

“Bartlam needed to drop somebody else in it because I know that definitely I wasn’t there,” the corporal said. “He has now got off four charges and put me on two more. I know he is not telling the truth. Bartlam’s memory seemed to get better nearly two years on after the situation to the point where he could definitely identify me. It’s just a load of bull****.”

The case continues on Monday.

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