Search: Iraq murder Briton
A former British soldier accused of murdering two colleagues in Iraq was facing a possible jail term in Britain and has a conviction for firearms offences, it has emerged.
Ex-paratrooper Danny Fitzsimons, 29, is accused of shooting dead two fellow private security guards in Baghdad on Sunday.
He faces a possible death penalty in Iraq for the alleged double murder.
It has emerged Fitzsimons, said to have been tormented after serving eight years in the forces, had pulled a gun on youngsters while at his home in Middleton, Greater Manchester.
Neighbours said Fitzsimons turned on teenagers causing trouble outside the run-down ground-floor council flat where the former soldier lived while on leave from his security job in Iraq. He pulled a flare gun and fired it into the air to scare the children off.
Fitzsimons was convicted of a public order offence over the incident, on April 1 this year, and had yet to be sentenced at Bolton Crown Court.
And he was given a suspended sentence in November last year for firearms offences after being found in possession of prohibited ammunition - believed to be 5.5mm tapered Nato issue bullets.
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Fitzsimons, who worked for private security firm ArmorGroup Iraq, is now in jail in Baghdad and could be the first foreigner publicly executed in the country.
Fitzsimons has reportedly told police in Iraq he was drunk when he got into a fight and pulled his gun in self-defence, leaving Scotsman Paul McGuigan and Australian Darren Hoare dead.
He was arrested shortly after the incident in Baghdad's International Zone on Sunday morning.
