Abuse photos were for soldier’s mother

THE British soldier who sparked the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal claimed yesterday he took photographs of the incidents to show his mother when he got home.

Fusilier Gary Bartlam, 20, also claimed he was told to hit Iraqis caught looting food from an aid camp known as Camp Bread Basket to let them know “who was boss.”

Bartlam took a series of photographs of the abuse and left them to be developed at a high street photographic shop in Tamworth, Staffordshire. He was later arrested after a worker in the shop alerted police.

The photographs included images of Iraqi prisoners being forced to simulate sex acts. Bartlam was giving evidence at the court martial in Osnabruck, Germany, of three colleagues, who are accused of abusing and assaulting prisoners at the camp in Basra.