The gallantry medal awarded to a heroic army soldier who was wrongly accused of war crimes during the battle of Danny Boy in the Iraq War has sold for £55,000.
Corporal Mark Byles received the Military Cross for taking an enemy trench during a life-or-death full frontal assault in which he killed several insurgents.
He later had to deny claims by the disgraced lawyer Phil Shiner that he and his colleagues tortured and murdered prisoners.
Their plight has recently been told in the new BBC drama Danny Boy , in which Shiner is played by Toby Jones.
In 2013, Corporal Byles gave evidence at the Al-Sweady Inquiry, named after a 19-year-old Iraqi killed in the battle, to clear his name, refuting allegations he had personally killed up to 20 insurgents.
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He was found guilty of 22 misconduct charges (via
The Guardian) and struck off for dishonesty. BBC/Expectation TV/Robert Viglasky
We were also told that Wood exited the army after he had cleared his name, which is unsurprising following his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the strain of the trial itself, all of which greatly impacted Wood s family.
He had served in the army for 16 years, during which time he had been awarded the Military Cross in recognition of his exemplary courage while carrying out his duties against the enemy on land . It s so traumatic what they went through, and so unbelievably heartbreaking, Leah McNamara (Lucy Wood) told
Danny Boy spoilers follow.
The Battle of Danny Boy, named after a nearby vehicle checkpoint, became mired in controversy when Brian Wood, a solider in the British army, and his fellow troops were accused of the unlawful murder and torture of Iraqi civilians while on duty in 2004.
The Al-Sweady enquiry, christened after Hamid Al-Sweady, a 19-year-old Iraqi who was said to have been unlawfully killed by British forces, was launched to look into those allegations and countless others, thousands of which were brought by Phil Shiner, who was part of the Iraq Historic Abuse Team (IHAT) that looked at the treatment of Iraqi civilians by UK armed forces personnel from 2003 to July 2009.