THE Army is bracing itself for four more courts martial involving eighteen British soldiers after yesterday’s conviction of three servicemen for the “brutal”, “cruel” and “revolting” abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

The Times has learnt that army lawyers are considering charges against eleven more soldiers in addition to the seven members of the Parachute Regiment accused of the fatal beating of an 18-year-old Iraqi at a roadside in May 2003.

One of them involves the alleged fatal beating of Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old Iraqi receptionist who was arrested by a patrol from The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment during an arms search at his hotel in Basra. The other two alleged abuse cases also involve deaths.

The news emerged as three soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were convicted of a series of military and civilian charges after a high-profile five-week court martial in Osnabrück, Germany, which effectively put the Army on trial.

Their fate will not be known until tomorrow, pending pre-sentence reports, but Corporal Daniel Kenyon, 33, Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, 25, and Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, 30 — all of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers — were told that they face up to two years in prison. They also face the ignominy of dismissal with disgrace from the service and the loss of pension rights.

All three stood capless, to attention in the chilly courtroom at a British army barracks in the garrison town as the verdicts were read out by Brigadier John Deverell, president of the board of seven officers trying them after eight hours of deliberations.

They remained emotionless upon conviction and resumed their seats, Cooley sipping water nervously.

A fourth soldier, Fusilier Gary Bartlam, 20, has already started an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty at a separate court martial last month to one charge of disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind and two charges of disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind.

It was his notorious set of war “trophy” photographs which formed the basis of the two courts martial — shocking the nation from the Prime Minister down and infuriating the Arab world. Reporting restrictions were imposed after his court martial at Hohne because Bartlam was to become the key witness against his comrades.

In a controversial deal with the Army Prosecution Authority, four assault charges against him were dropped — together with the threat of a maximum ten-year sentence — for his testimony.

The charges brought against Bartlam related to the full colour pictures which, he admitted, encouraged other soldiers in the Milan anti-tank platoon in which they served.

The board of officers was shown images of naked looters being forced to simulate anal and oral sex for the delectation of laughing squaddies. But the £1 million investigation by the Royal Military Police and the courts martial failed to uncover who was responsible for ordering the detainees to strip and engage in the humiliating sex show.

The court martial for three men also left defence counsel fuming that the defendants had been made scapegoats by the Army, which had failed to prosecute any officer.

The four Iraqi civilians were abused at the platoon’s hide in a hangar at the camp after the launch of Operation Ali Baba and designed by the camp commander Major Dan Taylor to capture and “work hard” pilferers. The order was contrary to the Geneva Convention though the major was spared a court martial himself because “it would not be in the service or public interest”.

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