Guard admits killing Darren | Ipswich News | Local News in Ipswich

Darren Hoare, 37, was shot dead in Baghdad last year. Photo: File

A FORMER soldier has given his first account of the shooting that led to the death of an Ipswich man recruited to work in Baghdad’s green zone.

Briton Daniel Fitzsimmons, who faces the death penalty in Iraq if he is convicted of murder, has admitted gunning down Australian dad-of-three Darren Hoare during a late-night dispute.

A third person, Scotsman Paul McGuigan, was also shot dead by Fitzsimmons.

All three had been working for private security contractor ArmorGroup in Baghdad when the shooting occurred on August 8.

Fitzsimmons, who had previously served in the British Army, has claimed he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

He gave his side of the story in a series of messages sent to London newspaper The Guardian.

He claimed that on the night of the killings, he had been drinking whiskey and chatting to friends over the internet in a colleague’s room, when a drunken Mr McGuigan came in and began “slating” Fitzsimmons’s friends.

He claims he punched Mr McGuigan in the face, but the two men later shook hands.

Mr Hoare, 37, then appears to have become involved, with Fitzsimmons alleging the three men made numerous visits to each other’s rooms throughout the night. When both Mr McGuigan and Mr Hoare entered his room, Fitzsimmons claims, violence broke out.

“Paul punched me repeatedly,” Fitzsimmons stated. “I fought savagely to get out of bed. Managed to get out, but ended up on the floor being stomped on.

“I lost consciousness for a few seconds. Heard Paul shout: ‘We’re going to f***ing kill you, you little ....’ I was getting it from both of them.

“Paul grabbed my M4 (an assault rifle). He cocked the weapon. I pulled the Glock (a pistol) from my vest. Paul had already told me he was gonna kill me now he had my M4 in his shoulder.

“I shot him three times in the chest. After the first shot he was still standing. I double tapped and put a further two into him. He was dead before he hit the ground.”

He said Hoare then “went for the Glock” and a struggle ensued.

“We were like animals … the booze had rushed round my body. The exact events at this point are blotchy at best. I remember blackness then madness.

“I know I fought for control of the pistol with Darren and I know I gained control and he was shot at point blank I’m sure. We were literally wrapped together arms and legs. Fighting and biting when the shots were fired.”

Mr Hoare’s death shocked friends and family back in Willowbank, Ipswich. He had served as an airfield guard at RAAF Amberley until 2005 and played for the Ipswich Eagles Aussies Rules team.

His brother Rodney told The Queensland Times: “He was a brother and a great father. He was everything that any person would want.”

Fitzsimmons spent seven months in prison in 2007 for possession of illegal ammunition and had been undergoing psychiatric treatment since 2004, while he was still a serving soldier. He was psychiatrically assessed again in May 2008 and May 2009.

Campaigners for his release in the UK have claimed that Fitzsimmons was psychologically damaged during his service in the Kosovo conflict in the 1990s.

Mr McGuigan’s fiance has queried Fitzsimmons’s story and a British coroner noted that there were no signs of an earlier “physical altercation” on the Briton’s body.

A spokesman for ArmorGroup said the company believed Fitzsimmons had forged medical certificates to find work in Iraq. A Baghdad court has demanded Fitzsimmons undergoes psychiatric testing before his trial for murder resumes on April 7.