Iraq hostage Jason Swindlehurst was shot dead, says coroner

Jun 30 2009 by Thomas Martin, Liverpool Echo

Jason Swindlehurst

THE two British hostages whose bodies were flown home from Iraq last week were shot dead, it was reported today.

A coroner concluded security guards Jason Swindlehurst, a father-of-one from Skelmersdale and colleague Jason Creswell from Glasgow died from gunshot wounds.

The men’s families and those of the other three British hostages who are still missing in Iraq are believed to have been informed.

The bodies of the two men were flown from Baghdad to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire last week.

The Oxfordshire Coroner opened inquests into their deaths and is expected to release the men’s bodies to their families so funerals can be held.

A Foreign Office spokesman declined to comment on the inquests, saying: “This is an ongoing matter for the coroner.”

The two Jasons were among a group of five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad on May 29, 2007.

A group of 40 armed men wearing police uniforms seized the hostages, including IT consultant Peter Moore, from Lincoln, and two guards at the Iraqi Finance Ministry in the capital.

Last week Andrew White, an Anglican minister working in Baghdad who knew the murdered hostages, criticised the Foreign Office’s decision not to publicise the hostages’ plight during their two years captivity.