UK soldier beat Iraqis into pain ‘choir’: prosecutor

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/September/focusoniraq_September129.xml§ion=focusoniraq&col=

BULFORD CAMP, England - A British soldier who has admitted committing a war crime against detainees while serving in Iraq beat his prisoners until they became a ‘choir’ of pain, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Lawyer 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 on Tuesday 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 martial. ‘The force he used was totally unnecessary and must have caused severe pain leaving aside general suffering.’

[soothsayer]

1. And his name is Payne? Unreal.