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Jailed Briton 'threatens suicide'

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Danny Fitzsimons was jailed for life for murdering two colleagues in Iraq

A British security worker jailed for life for murdering two colleagues in Iraq is threatening to take his own life, his family has revealed.

Danny Fitzsimons will serve at least 20 years for killing Scot Paul McGuigan and Australian Darren Hoare in August 2009.

His stepmother said he is frightened of being sent to Baghdad’s Rusafa prison because he is a former British Army paratrooper.

Fitzsimons, 31, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, worked with the two victims for private security group ArmourGroup.

Mr McGuigan, 37, a former Royal Marine originally from Peebles in the Scottish Borders, was gunned down alongside Mr Hoare in Iraq’s Green Zone. Mr McGuigan was shot twice in the chest and through the mouth, while Mr Hoare was shot through the temple at close range.

Fitzsimons claimed he was acting in self-defence when he shot his colleagues, asking the judges to consider a plea agreement which would convict him on lesser manslaughter charges.

His step-mother, Liz Fitzsimons, said she was euphoric that he had avoided the death penalty, but still had “massive concerns”.

She revealed her fears, saying: “He said ‘I will be a target’ and he said ‘I just won’t last’. He said ‘I will be a dead man if they put me in there’. He has also said that if they talk about putting him in Rusafa jail he will take his own life first.”

In a statement, Mr McGuigan’s fiancee, Nicci Prestage, 37, said: “I have found some solace in the fact that Fitzsimons has been convicted of murder and not manslaughter by self-defence. There was no evidence to support a fight between Paul, Darren and Fitzsimons and the judge has recognised that.

“I am releasing a photograph of my daughter Elsie-mai, born after her father was murdered, to remind everyone that she is the true victim of Fitzsimons’ actions.”

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