Red Cap widows 'given MoD payouts'

12 April 2012

The widows of two Red Caps murdered in Iraq have received secret payments of £200,000 each from the Ministry of Defence, according to reports.

Corporals Russell Aston, 30, and Paul Long, 24, were among six Royal Military Police officers killed by a mob in the town of Al Majar Al Kabir in June 2003.

Along with Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, Cpl Simon Miller, 21, Lance Corporal Benjamin Hyde, 23, and L/Cpl Thomas Keys, 20, the men were beaten and shot after becoming cornered in a police station.

Their families have accused the Ministry of Defence of sending the men into a "powder keg" situation without adequate communications equipment or ammunition to defend themselves.

According to the Daily Mirror, widows Anna Aston and Gemma Long have now received payouts, but relatives of the other victims have yet to see any cash.

An inquest in Oxford this March into the men's deaths heard they had left their base at Al Amarah without satellite telephones and had only 50 rounds of ammunition each.

Orders from the commanding officer of 1 Para Battle Group - to which the Royal Military Policeman unit was attached - that no-one leave base without a satellite phone and that each soldier should carry 150 rounds - were ignored.

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