19 September 2006ITV
A soldier who served in Iraq has become the first British serviceman to admit to a war crime.
Corporal Donald Payne, 35, pleaded guilty to the inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians and faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
At the centre of the case is the death in custody of Iraqi hotel worker Baha Musa, 26, in Basra in September 2003. Post-mortem tests found 93 injuries on his body, the court heard.
The court martial, at Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, marks the first time members of the British armed forces have been prosecuted for war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act 2001.
While admitting inhumane treatment, Cpl Payne, formerly of the Queen's Lancashire Regimen (QLR), now of the renamed Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, denies Mr Musa's manslaughter and perverting the course of justice.
Among seven defendants standing trial is Colonel Jorge Mendonca, 42, former commander of the QLR, the most senior UK serviceman ever to face a court martial.
With temperatures nearing 60C, the prisoners were hooded, deprived of sleep and made to hold a knees-bent posture, being beaten for failing to maintain it, prosecutor Julian Bevan QC said.
In some cases they were urinated on and deprived of food and water, the court heard.
"It is the Crown's case that these Iraqi civilians were treated inhumanely," Mr Bevan told a seven-man judging panel.
"We are dealing with systematic abuse against prisoners involving unacceptable violence against persons who were detained in custody, hooded and cuffed and wholly unable to protect themselves over a very long period of time."
When the civilians were arrested in a planned swoop at the hotel, on September 14 2003, it was believed they were dangerous insurgents, the court heard.
The trial continues.
