The first British soldier ever to be convicted of a war crime was today jailed for a year and dismissed from the army.
Corporal Donald Payne brutally mistreated Iraqi hotel worker Baha Mousa, who died of his injuries at the hands of British soldiers, and other civilians held at a detention centre in Basra.
He punched and kicked the civilians when they were hooded and handcuffed and conducted what he called "the choir" striking the prisoners in sequence, their groans or shrieks making up the "music".
The judge, Mr Justice McKinnon, said what Payne, 36, did was "particularly harmful" to the reputation of British troops. He said it undermined the trust between British soldiers and Iraqi citizens, and could put the lives of other British service personnel at risk and hamper future operations.
But he also criticised Payne's superiors for not supervising him, expressing specific concern that "conditioning" techniques the soldiers used - including forcing prisoners to maintain painful "stress" positions while hooded and handcuffed - were standard operating procedure for the soldiers.
The judge said there had been a "serious failing in the chain of command all the way up to brigade and beyond."
Sitting with a board of seven senior army figures, the judge also highlighted that others involved in the violence had not been brought to justice and said it was "unacceptable" that it had taken so long - more than three and a half years - to get the case to court.
His barrister, Tim Owen QC, had urged the court martial not to make Payne, who will lose £300,000 in future earnings and his pension, a "sacrificial lamb". He said the father of three, who has been in the army for 18 years, was already living with the "stigma" of being a war criminal, a term that is associated with the Nuremberg trials.
After the hearing, Payne's solicitor, William Bache, said his client would be prepared to reveal who else had been involved in the violence. Payne felt he had been badly let down by the army and had been following the orders of senior officers.
The chief of the general staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said the investigation into Mr Mousa's death was not over. "We know how Mr Baha Mousa died. We do not yet know who was responsible." He said that further action might follow.
At the start of the court martial at Bulford in Wiltshire seven months ago, Payne and six other soldiers faced charges over the ill-treatment of Mr Mousa, 26, and the rest of the prisoners. The violence culminated with the death of Mr Mousa who suffered 93 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose.
But the other soldiers, including Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the most senior officer brought before a court martial in modern times, were cleared. Payne was also found not guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Mousa.
However, Payne, who had been in the army for 18 years, admitted inhumanly (CORR) treating Iraqi civilians - a war crime under the International Criminal Court (ICC) Act 2001.
He was one of those in charge of a group of prisoners arrested after a raid on a hotel suspected of being a base for insurgents in Basra in September 2003.
The prisoners underwent "conditioning" to maintain the "shock of capture". One of the techniques used was to force them to hold a "stress position" - backs to the wall, knees bent, arms stretched parallel to the floor and hands cuffed in front of them.
But the court martial was told the "stress position" has been banned in the British army since 1972 following an investigation into interrogation techniques in Northern Ireland.
Payne also conducted what he called "the choir" for the "enjoyment and pleasure" of visitors to the detention centre.
For Payne, Mr Owen QC, said it was "distasteful" that Payne was the only soldier being sentenced for an episode in which many had been involved and when he was enforcing a "conditioning process" that had been approved by senior officers.
Mr Owen said there was a "very long list" of others who had "escaped" being brought before the court martial, adding that there had been a "closing of ranks". Some had been covering up their own misdeeds, while others had been unwilling to "dump" on their colleagues.
The judge intervened to flag up one group of soldiers who took over the guarding of the prisoners, under the control of a Lieutenant Craig Rodgers.
Mr Owen mentioned two soldiers, Sgt Ray Smulski and Colour Sergeant Robert Livesey, who have not been charged over the ill-treatment.
He said there was a "fundamental unfairness" that Payne was being punished when force - or the threat of force - was the only way to enforce the conditioning process.