TWO disgraced North-East soldiers were jailed and thrown out of the Army with a fellow serviceman last night for their roles in a prisoner abuse scandal at an aid camp in Iraq.

The shamed men from the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were told their fate at a court martial in Osnabruck, Germany.

Corporal Daniel Kenyon was sentenced to 18 months, Lance Corporal Mark Cooley to two years, and Lance Corporal Darren Larkin to 140 days.

Kenyon, 33, and Cooley, 25, both from Newcastle, were found guilty on Wednesday of taking part in the mistreatment of captured looters at Camp Bread Basket in May 2003. Lance Corporal Darren Larkin, 30, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to assaulting an Iraqi prisoner.

The fate of the soldiers was decided by a panel of seven senior officers and Judge Advocate Michael Hunter.

The case was brought to trial after the emergence of "trophy" photographs of abuse, including images of sexual humiliation.

The photographs were taken by another soldier, Gary Bartlam, 20, who then took them to be developed at a shop in his home town, Tamworth, Staffordshire, where an assistant called in police.

In one photograph, a grinning Cooley was shown driving a forklift truck with a bound Iraqi prisoner suspended from the forks, his face grimacing with fear.

Another showed Cooley, a father-of-one, kneeling and pretending to punch a prostrate prisoner.

Kenyon appeared in the background of one picture, which showed another Iraqi being assaulted.

The picture caught Larkin dressed in his boxer shorts and flip-flops, standing on top of a prone detainee who was tied in a cargo net.

Cooley was found guilty of two charges - disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind and prejudicing good order and military discipline.

Kenyon, a married father-of-three, was found guilty of three charges - aiding and abetting Larkin in the assault, failing to report the forklift truck incident and failing to report that prisoners were being forced to simulate a sex act.

Earlier yesterday, in mitigation, the court heard that Kenyon was sorry for the shame he had brought on the Army, which was referred to as his "family".

Joseph Giret, for Kenyon, said: "He is sorry.

"I do not think I could possibly express how sorry he is."

The court heard that Kenyon had three children and that he and his wife were trying for another child with fertility treatment.

Cooley, whose son was three weeks old yesterday, was described as heartbroken by his conviction.

His barrister, Stephen Vullo, said: "He is genuinely sorry for the damage the photographs have caused not just to the Army but to him and the damage to his family back home."