Somehow, none of this was enough to deter G4S from employing him, in August 2009. At the time, he was on bail and not allowed out of the UK. When Fitzsimons applied for a job in Iraq with the security firm Armour Group Security, owned by G4S, he didn’t tell his family. He explained that in Iraq, vehicles loaded with explosive devices only had their hazard warning lights on.”
He also described… an example of tensing up when he saw hazard warning lights on a vehicle. In June 2009, Dr Jameel Hussain wrote a psychiatric report, in which he said of Fitzsimons: “He gave a clear description of nightmares, vivid dreams, visual flashbacks, and he can also smell burnt flesh and feel the smell of death… At times he would be afraid to sleep because of the nightmares he was having. In May 2008, he was diagnosed with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by a court-appointed doctor. He served nine months in prison for assault (his defence was that he thought he was being followed), was convicted for firing a flare gun over the heads of teenagers climbing on his roof, and was charged with a racist assault. He wasn’t racist when he went in.”įitzsimons began to get in trouble with the law. “He said to the kids, ‘This is what you do to niggers: get them on the floor and stamp on their head.’” Where had that come from? “The army, I think. Liz recalls a time when he was left with his younger cousins. He had gone into the army full of hope (his mantra was the Farm song All Together Now) and came out full of hate. When he returned home, Fitzsimons was a different character. What did the army do to treat it? “Nothing that I’m aware of.” “They said he had anxiety disorder,” Liz says.
In 2004, after eight years, he applied to have his contract extended, but was discharged. We now know that this is hyper-vigilance, but we didn’t at the time.”įitzsimons had joined up at 16, excelled in training, saw active service in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and won a distinction as a sniper. He’s been playing bloody soldiers all the way home.’ He was doubling back, hiding behind walls. I said, ‘Where have you been?’ He said, ‘I’ve been following Danny. So Eric waited till Danny set off, and thought he’d better make sure he got home. “Eric said, ‘Come on, Danny, I’ll take you home’ and he said no. We are sitting in the living room of their smart bungalow just outside Rochdale they are both retired, former PE teachers. She looks at Fitzsimons’ father, Eric, who has since developed dementia. “Every now and again, the bin lid came up a tiny bit and then went down again,” says his stepmother, Liz. Danny, 34, had been drunk and abusive at a family event, circling the house and banging on the windows. I t was when Danny Fitzsimons hid in a wheelie bin that his family began to suspect something was wrong.
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