HEAVILY outnumbered, Colour Sergeant Brian Wood led his men from the relative safety of their armoured vehicle into a hail of bullets and grenades fired by waiting Iraqi insurgents.
By the end of the three-hour “suicide mission” against an enemy stronghold — later dubbed the Battle of Danny Boy — 28 Mahdi Army fighters had been killed and another nine taken prisoner.
All of the five British troops who had attacked the trench near the town of Majar al-Kabir on May 14, 2004, survived.
Brian was awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry and bravery before a grasping left-wing lawyer out for easy cash chose to besmirch his reputation and that of his fellow soldiers — some of whom attempted suicide due to the mental strain.
But next week — to the delight of service personnel everywhere — tank-chasing “human rights advocate” Phil Shiner will finally get his comeuppance after being convicted of three counts of fraud relating to legal aid claims made in 2007.
The 67-year-old chancer, named lawyer of the year by left-wing campaign groups Liberty and Justice in 2004, used public funds to offer Iraqi citizens cash for bogus war crimes allegations against Brian and 200 other British military personnel.
After £25million was wasted investigating 2,200 claims, a public inquiry found that NONE of them were true.
On Monday, Shiner will appear at Southwark Crown Court in South London to be sentenced after his guilty plea.
Hero Brian, 44, whose story was told in the BBC drama Danny Boy in 2021, tells The Sun: “Phil Shiner is a man who destroyed so many veterans’ lives and careers by accusing those people — myself included — of murder, mutilation and mistreatment.
“We were under so much pressure and it was a brutal fight to clear our names from barbaric allegations.
“If I’m honest, this was the toughest battle I’ve ever been in. It’s hard enough dealing with the aftermath of war, but to try to deal with those lies and dishonesty was devastating.
‘Lies and dishonesty’
“I was prepared to die on the battlefield for my men and country.
“To then have to stand in the dock in a courtroom and get cross- examined over my actions during and after the Battle of Danny Boy was betrayal, in my opinion.”
Even before British boots had touched Iraqi soil during the second Gulf War in 2003, Shiner had a reputation for causing trouble within military circles.
He had launched compensation claims against British peacekeepers who operated in Kosovo in 1999 and a £2billion claim for damages against the UK government in 2002 for alleged discrimination against Gurkhas.
The Coventry-born solicitor’s firm, Public Interest Law, saw another opportunity to make a fortune when British troops helped topple Iraq’s brutal dictator Saddam Hussein.
With images of US troops mistreating prisoners emerging, rumours followed that our forces had ignored the Geneva Convention governing battlefield conduct.
One allegation was that 19-year-old Hamid Al-Sweady was unlawfully killed while held at Camp Abu Naji, following the Battle of Danny Boy.
That resulted in the five-year-long Al-Sweady Inquiry being set up in 2009, with Shiner — portrayed by Toby Jones in BBC drama Danny Boy — obtaining legal aid to represent Iraqi citizens.
Brian, now a public speaker and author of the best-selling book Double Crossed, says: “Shiner made allegations that the militia fighters were innocent farmers who were murdered and mistreated by British soldiers.
“He somehow had support and the Al-Sweady public inquiry was launched.”
But what the legal aid board did not know was that Shiner was paying Iraqi agent Mazin Younis £500 a time to get claimants to fill in questionnaires.
The £1.6million Younis raked in was a clear incentive to get people to say whatever Shiner wanted and went against the rules of the profession.
Rather than being “innocent farmers”, many of the accusers were enemy militia intent on revenge against the Allies.
This is a man who would have gladly put innocent soldiers in prison for imaginary war crimes for his personal greed and to feed his ideology.
I can’t think of anything more vile.
The Al-Sweady Inquiry dropped all the unlawful killing claims in 2014 due to lack of evidence, with many of the “statements” obtained by the human rights lawyers contradicting each other.
But another inquiry, the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, which was set up in the light of Shiner’s claims, was to continue persecuting our troops for another three years.
The mental strain of the never-ending investigations left some soldiers feeling suicidal.
Father-of-two Robert Campbell, 51, who served as a major in Iraq, reveals: “Shiner contributed to the end of my career and he contributed to two suicide attempts. I was interrupted twice.”
The reason Robert, who faced life in prison if the false manslaughter or murder allegations against him had succeeded, felt he could not go on was that every time he was cleared of wrongdoing, another case would spring up.
When an Iraqi drowned in 2003, it was alleged that Robert had forced him into the water.
But repeated investigations found that the young man had jumped in after running away from Allied troops.
Robert says: “No one was chasing him and no one threatened him.”
‘MoD never apologised’
That didn’t stop Shiner pursuing Robert relentlessly.
He continues: “He cold-called all these people and said, ‘All right, I can get you money.’”
It was The Sun and lawyers representing the betrayed veterans that helped expose the crooked solicitor’s deception.
Solicitor Hilary Meredith-Beckham, who represents Robert, says: “Shiner was presenting it to the legal inquiry as if people in Iraq had come to him with accusations, when it wasn’t anything like that at all.”
Those revelations led in 2017 to IHAT being shut down and Shiner being struck off as a solicitor.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal proved 21 misconduct charges, including making false allegations against the soldiers.
The panel’s chair also cast doubt on Shiner’s claim that he was too unwell to attend the hearing or that he could not afford legal representation.
The authorities are trying to claw back the millions his now-closed firm fraudulently obtained, but are struggling to do so due to his efforts to hide his wealth.
Shiner, a former vice-president of the Haldane Society Of Socialist Lawyers, sold his home in Birmingham in 2017 for £300,000 to his two daughters before declaring bankruptcy.
Robert will be in court on Monday to look Shiner in the eye as he stands in the dock.
But he is not expecting the lawyer, who denied making up war crimes, to apologise to him.
Robert, who has retired after being discharged from the military in 2018, says: “I don’t think he’s going to apologise to us.
“This is a man who would have gladly put innocent soldiers in prison for imaginary war crimes for his personal greed and to feed his ideology.
“I can’t think of anything more vile.”
Speaking to veterans, it is clear that they are just as angry about their treatment at the hands of the Ministry of Defence.
Robert feels civil servants worked actively with Shiner, pursuing them with the same blinkered zeal that saw the Post Office prosecuting its innocent staff.
Lawyer Hilary is now bringing a civil action against the MoD for a failure of duty of care.
‘Sneaking off’
Members of the Armed Forces were told that because they had signed the Official Secrets Act they could not speak to their wives or, sometimes, even their solicitors about the war crime investigations.
Hilary says: “One wife thought her husband was having an affair because he kept sneaking off and was not able to tell her where he was going, when in fact he was being summoned by the IHAT investigation team.”
Distinguished former Army captain Rachel Webster was held in custody for 14 hours following a dawn raid on her home in 2014 by the IHAT investigation, even though she has never been accused of any wrongdoing.
David Taylor, a barrister who advised Rachel, says: “The discredited IHAT investigation brought misery to many veterans in an unwarranted attack upon the very people responsible for our protection.”
It was not until 2020 that Baroness Hallett cleared Robert for good while chairing the Iraq Fatality Investigations — although shockingly the International Criminal Court still lists the death as a “war crime”, basing its “evidence” on the false testimony obtained by Shiner.
Robert is aggrieved that he has not received an apology from the employers he risked his life for.
And he is angry that the Government intends to keep any cash it retrieves from Shiner, rather than giving it to the real victims — the wrongly accused heroes.
Robert concludes: “The MoD has never apologised to us.
“They’ve got a nerve trying to recover their money from Shiner in order to give it back to the MoD without acknowledging that they ruined our lives based on what Shiner told them.”
It’s payback for lawful deceit
By TOM TUGENDHAT, Former Minister for Security
PHIL SHINER has made a career out of suing Britain.
Over three decades he has brought actions against the UK government and state institutions time and again. You may say, that’s what the rule of law is all about – holding everyone to the same standard.
But in his case, that’s not true. As he has admitted by pleading guilty to fraud, he lied.
He lied about British Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He lied about abuses. He lied again and again.
Now he has finally been caught. But his lies have cost many so much.
In some ways they have cost all of us.
First, his real victims have been the brave soldiers he dragged through the courts.
Men and women who have served with dignity and courage were accused of any number of crimes and turned from heroes into targets because of his dishonesty.
The stress has cost marriages, careers and lives. That alone would be bad enough, but the truth is worse.
Shiner’s actions have weakened Britain and empowered our enemies.
He started out practising environmental law, but not in the way that many would understand it.
Shiner was bringing “lawfare” against our nuclear capabilities, not trying to build a greener world.
Challenging our nuclear operations at the Faslane naval base in Scotland was not about the environment, it was about our defence.
His harassment of soldiers dissuaded many from serving, and the lawfare he used against so many will have convinced others the risks were too great. That’s cost us all.
His legal career raises the question so common in criminal trials – who gains?
Who gains from our defence being eroded, our soldiers being made risk-averse and our Government reticent to act in our own national interest?
One thing is clear – it is not the British people, and his sentence is payback for that deceit.
