Lauren Huxley `brutally beaten before fire set`

Lauren Huxley `brutally beaten before fire set`	3.04.2008
COLLEGE student Lauren Huxley was brutally beaten and doused in petrol before she was found by firefighters responding to a house fire, a Sydney court has been told. Prosecutor Chris Maxwell QC said Ms Huxley was found semi-conscious in the garage of her family home at Northmead, in Sydney`s west, on November 9, 2005. It is alleged she was beaten with a pair of heavy metal cutters before the house was deliberately set alight. "She had been repeatedly beaten about the face, skull, and other parts of her body with a very hard object," Mr Maxwell told a jury in the NSW Supreme Court today. "An electrical cord had been tied around one of Ms Huxley`s arms, petrol from a lawnmower can had been poured over her, she was barely conscious and gasping for breath when discovered." Mr Maxwell was opening the crown case in the trial of Robert Black Farmer, 39, of Westmead in Sydney`s west, who is facing three charges relating to the attack on Ms Huxley, who is now 21. Farmer has pleaded not guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent to murder, detaining Ms Huxley without consent and causing malicious damage to a house. The trial, before Justice Peter Hall, is continuing. Share this article Digg this Post to del.icio.us Post to Newsvine Post to Facebook Add to kwoff
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Two women shot dead by private security guards
Australian boss says he `regrets` incident
Witnesses claim guards acted `like gangsters`

THE Australian head of a Dubai-based security company whose staff in Baghdad shot dead two women overnight said today he regretted the incident.

Michael Priddin, chief operating officer of Unity Resources Group which works as a private security firm in Iraq and which employs mainly Australians, confirmed the company was involved in the shooting.

His guards fired shots at a car in the Karrada area of Baghdad after it failed to stop despite several warnings, including flares and hand signals, he said on ABC radio.

"We deeply regret this incident and we will continue to pass on further information when the facts have been verified and the necessary people and authorities have been notified."

Mr Priddin said the exact circumstances of the incident were still to be determined and the company was working with Iraqi authorities to do so.

A company statement said earlier: "The first information that we have is that our security team was approached at speed by a vehicle which failed to stop despite an escalation of warnings which included hand signals and a signal flare.

"Finally shots were fired at the vehicle and it stopped."

Witnesses and security officials in Baghdad said the security guards opened fire on the car then sped off "like gangsters".

Shopkeeper Ammar Fallah said the guards, who were escorting a civilian convoy through the streets, signalled for a woman driving a car to pull over as they passed.

"When she failed to do so they opened fire, killing her and the woman next to her,`` he said.

"There were two children in the back seat but they were not harmed. The women were both shot in the head.``

Iraqi officials confirmed the incident, which occurred at the Masbar intersection in Karrada, a commercial and residential district which is regarded as one of the most secure in Baghdad.

"A security convoy of four-wheel-drive vehicles opened fire on a white car at 2.30pm (9.30pm AEST) killing two women,`` an interior ministry official said.

Another witness, Sattar Jabar, said the private car had moved too close to the convoy.

"It tried to avoid the convoy of four white SUVs of the foreigners but it came close to the last vehicle, which then opened fire immediately.``

Mr Jabar said two women were killed but said a third woman in the back seat had been wounded in the shoulder. One of the children had been struck by flying glass.

An AFP reporter counted 40 bullet holes in the bloodspattered car, which was later towed to the nearby Masbar police station.

A policemen who heard the shots and came running to the scene said that after the shooting the security guards "rode away like gangsters".

The US State Department website says the company is staffed and managed by experienced security professionals drawn from the special forces and police SWAT communities of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

Foreign security firms have immunity from Iraqi law under a 2004 regulation written while Iraq was under US administration following the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

The shooting came two days after Iraq vowed to punish US security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards were not provoked when they opened "deliberate`` fire in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 Iraqis.

The Iraqi Government said on Monday it was determined to rein in private security contractors following the Blackwater shooting.

- Reuters, AFP, AAP

Aussie link to Iraqi slayings 10/10/2007