Interview - John Hyde: Red Cap families' anger at blow to their fight for justice

There are a dozen photographs of Red Cap Ben Hyde dressed in military uniform placed around the living room. But his mother can't bear to look at any of them.

"Sandra only likes to be able to see photos of Ben as a boy," said John, Ben's father, motioning to six images of his son as a smiling six-year-old.

Ben's room has been redecorated but remains home to the bed where he slept and the Harry Potter books he once read.

His father says he still wears his son's jumpers on occasions, like he always did.

"He was my best friend."

It has been seven years since Lance Corporal Benjamin Hyde, 23, was shot dead when a mob of 400 Iraqi rioters besieged a police station in Majar al-Kabir, where he was working as a military policeman.

"Nothing is going to make Sandra and I feel any better," says John, a 62-year-old hospital porter from Northallerton. "I don't now, compared to five years ago."

Both he and his wife Sandra, 64, have been campaigning for justice since their son and five of his Red Cap comrades from 156 Provost Company were murdered in the southern Iraqi town on June 24, 2003. It was the biggest single loss of life in the British Army since the Falklands War. The families' quest for justice has been arduous and this week suffered a devastating blow.

The case having finally reached court, two Iraqi men on trial for the murder of the six soldiers were acquitted on Sunday in little over two hours by Chief Justice Baleagh Hamdi Hikmat in Baghdad's criminal court.

Hamza Hateer and Mussa Ismael al Fartusi were freed after none of the 11 witnesses could say they had seen either of the accused men commit a fatal act.

The decision has left John shocked, angered and fearful

no-one will ever be brought to account. "I find it difficult to believe," he says. "I don't see why they would go through to trial only to find them not guilty.

"Either the witnesses have been intimidated or the judge has been intimidated.

"There is a rising anger at the Iraqi authorities' reluctance to do anything. There seems to be no will on their part."

John says he does not "even want to think about" the possibility the decision could mark the end to his pursuit

for justice.

"There are still seven arrest warrants outstanding. All the families will continue to put pressure on the MoD to get some sense of justice done."

The dismaying decision was the latest setback in a prolonged search for justice.

It took until 2006 for arrest warrants to be issued and a further two years for the situation in Iraq to be deemed safe enough to carry out arrests. It was February of this year before eight people were taken into custody.

One was released after an apparent case of mistaken identity, only for the warrant to be reissued, and another five had charges dropped in August after the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence.

John confesses to having had dark thoughts of bringing his own retribution. "Would I feel better if I shot them myself? I don't know. I think in the short term I probably would. But in the long term it wouldn't make any difference, I've still lost Ben."

He says the 10-year sentence that would have been handed down had the two men been found guilty "doesn't go anywhere near" to what he would like. "Maybe it's an un-Christian attitude but I know how Ben particularly died. It's not going to cause any irreversible change in them or their families' lives. That's what we suffered."

An inquest in March 2006 heard how his son's body was found with five bullet wounds in his torso and multiple fractures to his face, probably caused by blows from the butt of a rifle.

Along with Sgt Simon Hamilton-Jewell, Cpl Russell Aston, Cpl Paul Long, Cpl Simon Miller and Lance Cpl Thomas Keys, Ben had been at the police station in Majar al-Kabir when the mob of masked men armed with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov rifles attacked.

The Red Caps held their position and none fired into the crowd. Three hours later, all six were dead.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a narrative verdict of unlawful killing and said while they should have been better equipped, their deaths could not have been avoided.

The group had just 50 rounds of ammunition and did not possess an Iridium satellite telephone.

John says he is not interested in apportioning blame to the Army. "It detracts from the courage that people show.

"Ben loved the life. It's nothing to do with politics."

Where the Army and the MoD could improve, though, is in communication. Despite talk of email updates, photographs and documented minutes, John was left to find out about the judge's decision via the BBC.

When John returned home from work, he found Colonel Robert Fram, the families' Army contact, had left a telephone message apologising for the situation.

It reminded John of the day his son died. "It was four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon and I was at work. When I looked at my phone, I saw Sandra had been trying to get hold of me.

"I was driving home knowing something was up when BBC radio announced six unnamed Royal Military Policemen had been killed in Iraq.

"I knew Ben was dead before I entered the house."

It is now MoD regulation to withhold details of any deaths until the family has been informed.

In more recent dealings with the Government, John admits to having felt "a little bit put out" at the MoD's decision to cease communications with the families, preferring instead to leave it to the Army.

John wrote to Defence Secretary Liam Fox to ask for more details but got a reply from Nick Harvey, the Armed Forces Minister.

"I wasn't impressed," he says. "If you write somebody a letter, you expect a reply from them."

The period now approaching is a time the Hyde family struggle to deal with. "Leading up to Christmas is always difficult," John says. "It's Ben's birthday on November 27 and Sandra's on December 4. I always lay flowers on Ben's grave and cut the grass around it."

John has just sent a book he's written about Ben to publishers and continues to raise money for the Ben Hyde Memorial Trust, which gives charitable donations to the RMP central benevolent fund and other good causes.

He says even if all the suspects are convicted he will not find closure. "This word 'closure', it just doesn't mean anything," he says. "Does it mean that you stop caring for the person? Does it mean that you suddenly feel a lot better? Because neither of those things is ever going to happen."