Firm was warned over killer guard

Danny Fitzsimons... jailed for 20 years

SECURITY firm G4S was warned not to employ armed guard Danny Fitzsimons in Iraq just days before he killed two colleagues, a BBC investigation has discovered.

Fitzsimons, a former pupil at Our Lady’s School in Royton, was jailed in February, 2011, for 20 years over the deaths of Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare (both 37), who he shot dead in August, 2009.

The former paratrooper admitted manslaughter with diminished responsibility but pleaded not guilty to murder.

In a documentary to be shown on BBC Scotland tonight, it is revealed that a G4S worker sent a series of emails to the company in London, warning them about Fitzsimons’s previous convictions and unstable behaviour.

The emails expressed concern about Fitzsimons handling weapons and being exposed to members of the public.

Within 36 hours of arriving in Iraq, Fitzsimons, who was sacked by a previous employer for punching a client, had shot and killed the two men and injured an Iraqi security guard as he tried to flee the scene.

When he was taken on by G4S, Fitzsimons also had a criminal record and was facing outstanding charges of assault and a firearms offence.

He has always claimed he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of his experiences serving with the Army in the former Yugoslavia and as a private security guard in Iraq.

Fitzsimons was the first Westerner to be convicted by an Iraqi court since the 2003 US-led invasion.



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