THREE British soldiers were yesterday found to have all taken part in the brutal killing of a Danish tour guide, Louise Jensen, on the island of Cyprus.
The accused committed all three offences as charged, the head of a three man judicial panel, Judge Takis Eliades, declared at the end of a 12 hour reading of the judgement at Larnaca court.
Alan Ford, Justin Fowler and Jeffrey Pernell were charged with abduction, conspiracy to rape and the manslaughter of Ms Jensen, (23) in September 1994.
All three took an active part. They acted in a co ordinated way," the judge said, although it was not proven which of the soldiers delivered the fatal blow.
Ford (26), of Birmingham, Fowler (27), of Falmouth, and Pernell (23) of Oldbury, West Midlands, looked stunned as the judge made his comments.
The three nervously smoked cigarettes during a recess as they waited for the defence to appeal for mitigating circumstances on the grounds of drunkenness, before sentence is passed. Sentence is expected today.
Ms Jensen's parents and their son were composed as they listened to the summary of evidence. When details were given of their daughter's horrific injuries - at least 15 head wounds - the three clasped hands in the front row of the public gallery.
Ms Jensen, riding pillion on a motorcycle with her Cypriot boyfriend, was grabbed by the three soldiers, then members of the Royal Greenjackets, after they rammed their mini moke into them on the outskirts of Ayia Napa resort shortly after midnight. The soldiers bundled her into their car, took her to a remote spot, stripped her naked, attempted to rape her and then bludgeoned her to death with a spade.
Her face was so disfigured - one blow nearly split her head in two - that her friend, Mr Michalis Vassiliades, who fled, could identify her body at a mortuary later only by a silver ring she was wearing.
The three soldiers, wearing blood stained clothes and drunk were detained at a police road block close to their base an hour after her disappearance was reported. Ford admitted hitting the victim with a spade but accused one of the other two of killing her. Pernell accused Ford of killing her. Fowler admitted to trying to have sex with her but accused the other two of killing her. All claimed they were extremely drunk at the time.
The trial, the longest in Cypriot judicial history, was delayed for months as three Cypriot lawyers, paid by the British taxpayer to defend the soldiers as part of the legal aid system, sought to get acquittals based on procedural technicalities. It is estimated that the bill for the British Ministry of Defence is in excess of £100,000.
Ms Jensen's killing shocked the usually tranquil Mediterranean holiday island and led British military authorities to ban all soldiers from Ayia Napa and its bars.
Britain's military bases on Cyprus cover nearly 100 sq miles and were ceded under the constitution that gave the island its independence in 1960. Many Cypriots would like the bases to close and the soldiers to go.