Donald Payne ( British Army soldier ) Corporal Donald Payne ( born 9 September 1970 ) is a former soldier of the Queen ' s Lancashire Regiment of the British Army who became the first member of the British armed forces to be convicted of a war crime under the provisions of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 when he pleaded guilty on 19 September 2006 to a charge of inhumane treatment . He was jailed for one year and dismissed from the army . Service career . Donald Payne joined the British Army on 5 June 1988 , enlisting with the Queen ' s Lancashire Regiment , which subsequently amalgamated into the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster ' s Regiment . He was promoted to the substantive rank of Corporal on 30 June 2000 . As an NCO he worked as a Provost Corporal with the Regimental Police in Catterick Garrison . He also served in Iraq , South Armagh , and the Former Yugoslavia He had the following decorations / awards : General Service Medal with Northern Ireland clasp , NATO Medal with Former Yugoslavia clasp , Accumulated Campaign Service Medal , The Queen ' s Jubilee Medal and the Iraq Medal His service career ended on 30 April 2007 when he was reduced to the ranks and dismissed from Her Majesty ' s armed forces for his conduct in Iraq . War crimes . On 14 September 2003 , a number of Iraqis were detained by British forces in raids on hotels in Basra . The detainee s were taken to a three - room building in Basra , where they were questioned for 36 hours . Among the detainees was Baha Mousa , a 26 year old employee of the Haitham Hotel in Basra , who died as a result of the interrogation . The subsequent post - mortem found 93 injuries , including fractured ribs and a broken nose . Detainees claimed that the British soldiers had held kicking competitions , competing to see who could kick the prisoners the furthest . Prisoners were also made to assume stress positions and were beaten and kicked if they failed to do so . Court martial . On 19 July 2005 , Attorney General Lord Goldsmith announced that Payne was being charged with manslaughter , perverting the course of justice and inhumane treatment of persons under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 . On the same day , another ten soldiers were also charged with similar crimes , six relating to the death of Mousa and four relating to the death of another Iraqi , Ahmed Jabber Kareem Ali , on 8 May 2003 . The Court Martial was held in Bulford Camp , Wiltshire , after an investigation by the Royal Military Police . It convened in the autumn of 2006 , and concluded six months later in April 2007 , being the most expensive Court Martial in modern British military history During the court martial , Corporal Payne admitted he " enjoyed " hearing Iraqis call out during torture , describing their cries of pain as " the choir " . He was cleared of manslaughter and perverting the course of justice . Six other soldiers were cleared of any charges . After earlier pleading guilty to the offence of inhuman treatment of persons protected under the Geneva Conventions , Corporal Donald Payne was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment , reduced to the ranks , and dismissed from Her Majesty ' s Armed Forces , on 30 April 2007 . On all other charges , Cpl Payne , and the other defendants , were acquitted when the presiding judge , Mr Justice McKinnon , ruled that there was no evidence against them . Mr Justice McKinnon suggested that he believed there had been some level of covering - up with relation to the case , when he stated during the proceedings that " " None of those soldiers has been charged with any offence , simply because there is no evidence against them as a result of a more or less obvious closing of ranks . " " Video of Payne abusing prisoners . On 13 July 2009 , a video reportedly showing Cpl Payne abusing Iraqi prisoners was released as part of the evidence being presented to the public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa . The video reportedly shows Cpl Payne forcing hooded and bound prisoners into stress positions , pushing and shoving prisoners , and aggressively shouting obscenities at them whilst they clearly vocalise their distress . Procedures shown in the video were banned from use by British military personnel on 2 March 1972 , by Edward Heath , the Prime Minister at the time , after IRA internees in Northern Ireland were subjected to similar techniques . The ban was announced the day the Parker Report was published and found them to be illegal under English law . In 1978 in the European Court of Human Rights in " Ireland v . the United Kingdom " ( Case No . 5310 / 71 ) found the techniques used in Northern Ireland " amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment " . References . < div class = " references - small " >