Fitzsimons: I didn’t murder them

Danny Fitzsimons . . . maintains he shot two colleagues in self defence

FORMER soldier Danny Fitzsimons has spoken from the Iraq jail where he is serving 20 years for shooting dead two security firm colleagues.

Tomorrow will be four years since the drunked security guards clashed - and former Our Lady’s School pupil Fitzsimons shot dead Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare.

But talking to an ITN team inside the jail, Fitzsimons continued to defend his claim that he was not guilty of murder.

“Yes I did kill the two men, but I did not murder them. Self defence is a complete defence,” he said recalling the night his life changed forever.

The former paratrooper left the Army over stress-related issues, but found life as a civilian hard before landing a job with G4S security.

Fitzsimons’s family is hoping British authorities can convince Iraq to allow him to serve his sentence back in this country, since they believe he needs treatment for mental health problems.

In a statement, G4S said they believed Fitzsimons was fit to work in Iraq, but it was later discovered one of his papers was a forgery. It also said that at no time had it ever been proven that Fitzsimons was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Fitzsimons apologised to the families of Mr McGuigan and Mr Hoare, but their relatives still question how Fitzsimons was ever able to get a job out there with a poor health record and a criminal record — and outstanding charges of assault and a firearms offence.