Briton 'killed by Iraqi police'

Brian Tilley was killed when gunmen walked into his girlfriend's house

A girl who survived a massacre in Iraq in which a British man was shot dead, later identified five Iraqi policemen as his killers, an inquest has heard.

Security worker Brian Tilley, 47, of Heckford Road, Poole, was killed when gunmen walked into his girlfriend's house in Baghdad on 14 May 2004.

Sarah, 15, told the US military that the gunmen wore Iraqi police uniforms.

Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset Coroner's Court also heard Mr Tilley was due home two days before his death.

The inquest was told that during the incident, the 47-year-old was dragged into the kitchen where he was beaten and then shot in the back and once in the stomach.

The gunmen then shot the rest of the occupants in the house, who included Sarah, her mother, her mother's boyfriend, her aunt, and two female friends, one of whom was Mr Tilley's girlfriend, Iman.

Dorset Police wanted Sarah, who was shot in the head, to give evidence at the inquest, but she has since disappeared.

'Very nervous'

US Army captain Katherine Brennan, from the military police, attended the hearing and said Iraqi police officers had been reluctant to investigate the deaths.

She said: "When we found out Sarah was at a local hospital, we immediately brought the Iraqi police doing the investigation to the hospital.

"Once we found Sarah, she was very nervous of the Iraqi police. She didn't want anything to do with them."

She added that Sarah had told them that the people doing the shooting wore Iraqi police uniforms.

Capt Brennan said Iraqi police officers had been known to commit crimes, but equally uniforms were sometimes stolen by criminals.

But she said Sarah had twice picked out five Iraqi men - all from the same police station - out of more than 200 images.

The inquest continues.