AN ARMY regiment which recruits heavily from Bolton used “serious, gratuitous violence” which led to the death of an innocent Iraqi civilian.

The sustained abuse meted out to father-oftwo Baha Mousa, aged 26, while he was in British Army custody represented a “very serious breach of discipline”

by members of 1st Battalion the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (1QLR), a landmark public inquiry found.

Inquiry chairman Sir William Gage said a number of British soldiers, including 1QLR’s former commanding officer Colonel Jorge Mendonca, bore a “heavy responsibility”

for the tragedy.

He said: “The events described in the report represent a very serious and regrettable incident.

Such an incident should not have happened and should never happen again.”

He named 19 members of UK forces who carried out assaults on Baha Mousa and nine other Iraqis held with him.

They are Pte Christopher Allibone, Pte Thomas Appleby, Pte Gareth Aspinall, Pte Peter Bentham, Pte Aaron Cooper, Pte Wayne Crowcroft, Cpl John Douglas, Pte Darren Fallon, Pte Graham Lee, Pte Johnathan Lee, C/Sgt Robert Livesey, Pte Stuart Mackenzie, Cpl Donald Payne, Pte Gary Reader, L/Cpl Adrian Redfearn, S/Sgt Christopher Roberts, Pte Craig Slicker, Cpl Kelvin Stacey and Pte Paul Stirland.

The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment went on to make up part of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, which was formed on July 1, 2006.

The Duke of Lancs Regiment, which was also made up from the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment and the King’s Regiment, was awarded the Freedom of Bolton in 2009.

Mr Mousa sustained 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, while in the custody of 1QLR in Basra, southern Iraq, over 36 hours between September 14 and 15, 2003.

The £13 million public inquiry condemned the “lack of moral courage to report abuse” within the battalion.

It found that one soldier, Corporal Donald Payne, violently assaulted Mr Mousa in the minutes before he died, punching and possibly kicking him, and using a dangerous restraint method.

Payne became the first member of the British armed forces convicted of a war crime when he pleaded guilty to inhumanely treating civilians at a court martial in 2006.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “It is clearly a truly shocking and appalling incident.

This should not have happened.

“If there is further evidence that comes out of this inquiry that requires action to be taken, it should be taken.”

The head of the British Army said soldiers were now “in no doubt about the need to treat detainees humanely and with respect”.