Cleared soldiers get royal assignment

Aug 3 2008 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

A NORTH soldier cleared over his involvement in a Cyprus brawl has new duties which could include guarding the Queen, the Sunday Sun can reveal.

Gary Farrell, 23, of Denton, Newcastle, is among nine soldiers who were dramatically acquitted of trashing the popular Bedrock Inn in Ayia Napa, and beating up its owner six months ago.

The Dhekelia Base soldiers, who had faced up to five years in jail, had been celebrating the end of tours of Iraq and Afghanistan when trouble broke out at the Bedrock Inn on February 2.

The drunken brawl left five injured, including three Britons and two Greek Cypriots. One man suffered a fractured skull and another damage to his eyesight.

On Friday, Famagusta District Court Judge Elias Georgiou found all nine soldiers from the 2nd Royal Regiment of Fusiliers not guilty.

They will rejoin their battalion, now based in Hounslow, London.

He said: “The burden was on the prosecution to prove involvement beyond reasonable doubt, and that cannot be proven to the required degree.”

The men had faced charges ranging from grievous bodily harm to criminal damage.

Fusilier William Sewell, 21, from Manchester, was cleared of grievous bodily harm, malicious damage and breach of the peace.

Fusiliers David Ramage, 21, from Manchester, and Daniel Brayne, 22, from Birmingham, were cleared of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, malicious damage and breach of the peace.

Fusiliers Damien Heywood, 27, Andy Evans, 21, and Dean Rushton, 21, all from Manchester, Mr Farrell from Newcastle, Christopher Wenham, 19, from London, and Ashley Hughes, 19, from Birmingham, were all acquitted of malicious damage and breach of the peace.

Captain Nick Ulvert, deputy spokesman for British Forces in Cyprus, said: “The soldiers are extremely delighted . . . it’s been a long process and they are very pleased that they have been found innocent.”

He said the battalion was “conducting public duties . . . guarding Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace, the Tower of London, Windsor Castle.”

Cpt Ulvert confirmed all nine have been punished by the Army for being in the bar, which is out of bounds to British troops.