Murdered Red Cap’s mother fights MoD

The mother of a British military policeman killed by a mob in Iraq is planning legal action to force the Ministry of Defence to hold a public inquiry into his death.

Corporal Paul Long, 24, was one of six Red Caps murdered when about 400 Iraqis attacked a police station in Majar al-Kabir, Maysan, southern Iraq, in June 2003.

There have been a series of investigations into what went wrong, including an internal Army Board of Inquiry and an inquest.

But Cpl Long’s mother Pat, of Hebburn, South Tyneside, believes those reviews were inadequate and said she still has unanswered questions about what happened to her son.

Her legal team has now written to Defence Secretary Philip Hammond calling for a fresh inquiry and warning that they could bring a judicial review challenge in the High Court in London. The six men had been training Iraqi police when killed. An inquest found they were poorly equipped to defend themselves.