22

LCPL RILEY’S INFORMATION, incomplete as it was, confirmed some key details for the SIB team. They were certain now that assaults against the detainees, presumably including Baha Mousa, had been going on for some time before his death. The media drivers had seen the prisoners in such a poor state at lunchtime on the Monday (at least twenty-four hours after they had been arrested on the Sunday morning) that it seemed likely that they had been treated in this way for a while. And clearly a number of people must have been involved either as direct perpetrators or as witnesses. These were the ones they now had to find.

SSgt Sherrie Cooper had already confirmed at her first briefing with Captain Moutarde, the adjutant, and Lt Col Mendonça that Baha Mousa had been picked up by one of the battalion’s companies during a raid on a hotel on Sunday 14 September. The men of that company, A or Anzio Company as it was called, were the arresting troops. They were divided into two ‘multiples’ under the overall command of Major Englefield. The first, commanded by Colour Sergeant Christopher Hollender, had been responsible for securing the perimeter of the hotel during the operation. The second, commanded by Lieutenant Craig Rodgers, carried out the arrests inside.

There were sixteen men in Lieutenant Rodgers’ multiple. These men had also guarded the detainees at some point. Sergeant Colley’s notebook confirmed that those soldiers he had found crowding about the detention facility after Baha Mousa was pronounced dead were from that multiple. He had listed them:

Lieutenant Rodgers

Private Christopher Allibone

Private Thomas Appleby

Private Gareth Aspinall

Private Peter Bentham

Private Aaron Cooper

Corporal John Douglas

Private Lee Graham

Private Jonathan Hunt

Private Damien Kenny

Private Stuart MacKenzie

Private Garry Reader

LCpl Adrian Redfearn

Private Paul Stirland

All of these were potential witnesses, perhaps even suspects. They had to be seen and questioned. (There were two others in Anzio Company who hadn’t been identified by Colley that night: Private David Fearon and Fusilier Richards.)

Whilst SSgt Jay was informing Daoud Mousa about his son’s death and obtaining confirmation of the deceased’s identity, and Sergeant Birch was seeing James Riley and taking his first statement, and Captain Nugent was following up the appointment of a British-based pathologist to undertake the post-mortem, SSgt Cooper headed back to Battle Group Main to start questioning the Anzio Company soldiers. The detective who was to take the investigation over from her in a few days, WO David Spence, went with her.

The SIB officers had prepared for their task by constructing a pro forma questionnaire to hand to the soldiers. It was a way of ensuring that they didn’t forget important questions and the interviews could be dealt with quickly. But it would also implant an insidious seed in the soldiers’ minds that the SIB already knew what had happened. Honesty and candour might result. It was worth a try.

Apart from basic background information, the form asked how the guards had been briefed on dealing with the detainees; it asked what guard duty they had performed at the detention cell, who had been there, whether they had given the prisoners water, food, toilet breaks. It asked whether they had applied stress positions, hoods, plasticuffs; it asked whether any force was used against the prisoners, whether they had ‘corrected them’, used hand, boot, rifle; whether any complaints had been made about their treatment. It asked whether visitors had entered the detention block, whether any of the detainees were taken away during their guard duty and if any injuries had been seen when they had been returned. And finally, ‘Did you strike any of the detainees whilst they were in your care?’

Anyone filling out the form would have known precisely where the investigation was going. It wasn’t intended to be subtle.

Armed with the form, Cooper and Spence, along with a couple of other RMP officers (sergeants Gordon and Robinson) began to see the men of Anzio Company. They worked in pairs. Sergeants Gordon and Robinson started with Private Aaron Cooper, SSgt Sherrie Cooper and WO Spence with Lieutenant Rodgers.

Almost before they had a chance to begin, Sergeant Gordon rushed from his interview with Private Cooper and interrupted WO Spence’s session with Lieutenant Rodgers. Gordon said he had some information. He needed help. Private Cooper had admitted that he’d been in the detention centre with the detainee at the moment he had died. He’d said LCpl Redfearn had been there too. Sergeant Gordon wanted to know what he should do.

The SIB team quickly conferred. They decided they couldn’t continue the interviews. Private Cooper hadn’t been cautioned yet. He had no legal representative. Anything he said that was incriminating might be unusable. It could be thrown out of court, tainted for failing to follow proper procedure. They had to stop. Private Cooper had to be arrested, Redfearn too, both on suspicion of involvement in the death of Baha Mousa.

Sergeant Gordon was sent to arrest Private Cooper. The interview with Lieutenant Rodgers was halted. They called for LCpl Redfearn and promptly arrested him as well.¹ The whole interviewing process ceased. They bundled the two suspects into their vehicles and headed off to SIB HQ. The two suspects were to be cautioned and a legal advisor appointed. The investigation had suddenly acquired momentum.

¹ It seems strange that SSgt Cooper hadn’t taken the same step when she saw Corporal Donald Payne a few days earlier and he had admitted that he was restraining Baha Mousa at the time of the detainee’s death.