UK soldier beat Iraqis into pain "choir"-prosecutor

BULFORD CAMP, England, Sep 20 (Reuters) A British soldier who has admitted a war crime against detainees while serving in Iraq beat his prisoners until their cries turned them into a ''choir'' of pain, a prosecutor said today.

Lead prosecutor Julian Bevan said Corporal Donald Payne ran a campaign of systematic abuse of prisoners held after a raid on hotels suspected of harbouring insurgents in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in September 2003.

Payne, who was initially in charge of the detainees, pleaded guilty yesterday to treating prisoners inhumanely but denies manslaughter over the death of hotel receptionist Baha Musa -- the primary charge in what could be a four-month court martial.

''Corporal Payne lies at the centre of this case,'' Bevan told the court, describing how Payne's prisoners were beaten to order, and for show, until they screamed in pain.

''Corporal Payne plainly enjoyed conducting what he called 'the choir'... systematically assaulting each of the Iraqi civilian detainees in turn ... causing each one to shriek or groan in pain, their various noises constituting the music.'' Payne, who also denies perverting the course of justice, sat as Bevan began to describe in detail the charges against him. He is one of seven British soldiers facing court martial on charges ranging from manslaughter to negligence.

Five of the seven men in court were serving with the Queens Lancashire Regiment while two others were with the Intelligence Corps at the time of Musa's death.

Sergeant Kelvin Stacey, 29, is charged with assault causing actual bodily harm, Lance Corporal Wayne Crowcroft, 22, and Private Darren Fallon, 23, are both charged with the inhumane treatment of detainees.

Major Michael Peebles, 35, and Warrant Officer Mark Davies, 37, both of the Intelligence Corps, and Commanding Officer Colonel Jorge Mendonca are all charged with negligently performing a duty by failing to stop the abuse.

All six have pleaded not guilty.

''THE CHOIR'' The prosecution's case yesterday included an admission Crowcroft is reported to have made to a soldier in a Cyprus bar in November 2005 with the words ''we all kicked him to death''.

Musa, the court heard yesterday, had 93 injuries on his body, including a broken nose and ribs, while another detainee was so badly beaten that he nearly died from kidney failure.

Referring to Payne, Bevan said: ''The indications are that he actually enjoyed making them suffer.'' ''The force he used was totally unnecessary and must have caused severe pain, leaving aside general suffering.'' Today the court was shown a so-called trophy video of Payne verbally abusing some hooded and squatting detainees.

The fact he let himself be filmed and seen by witnesses he did not know proved it was accepted practice, Bevan said.

All the detainees were held in a raid on a Basra hotel as the Iraqi insurgency grew. Guns, grenades, ammunition, bayonets and a sniper scope were found in the raid.

Britain, Washington's main ally in Iraq, has investigated scores of deaths and injuries of Iraqis since joining the war.

Three British soldiers were jailed in February 2005 for abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that drew comparisons with the mistreatment of Iraqis by US troops at the Abu Ghraib prison.

REUTERS PB PM2042