Family demand answers from government over murdered son


ROBIN Wild from St Boswells is not your typical conspiracy theorist.



As chairman of the Scottish District Courts Association, he is effectively the most senior Justice of the Peace in the land and is currently engaged in high level negotiations with the Scottish Executive over sweeping plans to revamp summary justice.
The 63-year-old is also a former chief dental officer for Scotland and England.
"Robin is one of the most rational and respected men you will ever meet," said one solicitor friend this week.
Yet Robin Wild has a conspiracy theory – and it is a big one.
He claims that, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary or a proper investigation by the Foreign Office, his journalist son Richard, 24, who was shot dead in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, may have been "taken out" by a hit man acting on behalf of coalition forces.
As Monday's first anniversary of Richard's death approaches, Mr Wild has decided to "go public" with his claims in the hope that the truth finally discovered.
But he is not hopeful.
His son had gone to Iraq on June 20, 2003, in the hope of filing honest freelance reports to whoever would screen them.
He had already gained a reputation for being what government spin doctors pejoratively describe as "off message".
Before leaving, he had worked on a Channel 4 documentary "The True Face of War" which featured evidence of atrocities by US soldiers against Iraqi civilians even although the conflict was officially over. It is also claimed major news organizations were scared of losing ratings by screening anything vaguely criticial of the coalition in the wake of September 11.
But this did not register with Robin and Daphne Wild when they heard their beloved only son had been shot on a busy street outside Baghdad's Natural History Museum.
Consumed with grief, they accepted the Foreign Office explanation that Richard had been mistaken for an American soldier and shot by an unknown assailant who was part of any angry mob.
But in October, Robin Wild was contacted by Michael Burke, another "off-message" journalist who had worked with Richard in Baghdad.
Burke explained to Robin that Richard had been working for him as a cameraman and that he (Burke] was on the scene shortly after the shooting.
"The pair had gone to the British Office in the capital to report the killing, but they were told it was an army matter and did not even get through the door," explained Robin Wild.
Burke had spoken to eye witnesses who described how an Iraqi man, smartly dressed in white shirt and chinos, had been waiting for some time in a car outside the museum. When Richard emerged the man pulled a small pistol out of his picket, shot Richard in the back of the head and drove off.
On his return to the Borders, Robin was sent a copy of a New Zealand newspaper article, written within a week of the murder, which quoted Mohammed Qassem, a guard at a nearby bomb shelter. There had been no angry mob and Qassem confirmed Burke's version of events.
"It had all the hallmarks of a contract killing," recalled Robin.
On November 24, six weeks after writing to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Robin received a reply offering "sincere condolences".
Mr Straw revealed no investigation into Richard's death had taken place.
"The Iraqi police and US military were severely limited in their ability to investigate crimes. I am sorry to say there is still no current capacity to investigate this death."
Through Burke, Robin Wild discovered more circumstantial evidence pointing to a contract killing.
Two subsequent cameraman working for Burke had "disappeared" without trace; in September, an Iraqi journalist Junis Kuthair, who had been investigating Richard's death, was picked up by US forces and thrown into the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and has been there ever since.
And Richard's laptop, which had been left in his will to his sister Rosemary, was stolen when her flat in Aberdeen was broken into. Although cash and jewellery was lying around, nothing else was taken.
Burke has told Robin Wild he believes the computer may have contained photographs of US army atrocities. "It is common knowledge that the CIA is very sensitive about photographs," said Robin.
A fortnight ago, Robin met with a senior Foreign Office official in London. "I showed her the copy of the New Zealand paper, but she said she would need confirmation from the journalist who wrote it. Chillingly, I was told that if my assassination theory was correct, then the Foreign Office would not tell us."
And he believes that although Richard was the first journalist to be killed after the official end of the war, the new Iraqi regime will have neither the time nor inclination to probe it. "The trail has run cold," he said.
Last Sunday, Robin and Daphne were in London for the launch of a book dedicated to Richard's memory. The volume is entitled "Richie – By His Friends" and includes contributions from his ex-media colleagues and former Cambridge University pals.
Robin said he doubted if he will ever have full closure on the death of his son.
"A year on, I feel the best I can do is tell the world that a talented young man died doing his job in a foreign country and the authorities have done absolutely nothing to find out why."

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01 July 2004