US guard England pleads guilty in Iraq abuse case

FORT HOOD, Texas - US Army reservist Lynndie England, pictured holding a naked Iraqi on a leash in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, has pleaded guilty to seven charges of abuse but the judge did not immediately accept her plea.

England, who appeared in photographs that touched off an international furore at a time when the United States was under pressure over the 2003 Iraq invasion, pleaded guilty to charges that can carry a maximum sentence of 11 years.

The judge at her military trial, Col. James Pohl, called a break in the proceedings to consider whether to accept her plea, prompted by remarks in court in which she said she did not believe at the time that her actions were wrong.

The plea had been worked out with prosecutors, who had dropped two of the charges as part of a deal. The charges she admitted to could bring her 11 years in prison, but her lawyer hoped for a much shorter punishment.

Questioned by Pohl about the incident portrayed in the leash picture, England, 22, said she had visited that section of the sprawling prison to see Sgt. Charles Graner, with whom she was involved sexually.

"(Graner) handed me the leash and said hold this, I'm going to take a picture," the diminutive soldier said. "He wanted it to look more ... humiliating if a female of my size would hold it."

She added: "I assumed it was OK because he was an MP (military policeman). He had the background as a corrections officer and with him being older than me I thought he knew what he was doing."

Graner, a former prisons office by whom England has since had a child, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a military tribunal in January for his part in the abuse. He is expected to testify this week in England's sentencing hearing.

Under a plea deal, two of the nine charges against England, who had low-level clerk duties at Abu Ghraib, were dropped. The sentencing phase was expected to start on Tuesday.

England, of Fort Ashby, West Virginia, said she was just followed orders and her lawyer, Capt. Jonathan Crisp, has said he hopes she will receive a reduced punishment because of mental shortcomings.

"The government has certainly been more amenable as of late than they were initially. I think they recognise her ultimate role in this is not what it was initially thought to be. She was a pawn," Crisp said last week. 

PILE OF NAKED PRISONERS

England was photographed holding a naked detainee on a leash and pointing at the genitals of a naked male prisoner while smiling and smoking a cigarette. She also posed beside naked prisoners in a human pyramid.

The Pentagon has cleared all but one of the top five commanders at Abu Ghraib of any wrongdoing, despite concern that a drive to squeeze information out of detainees initiated at a high level created the atmosphere in which the abuses could occur.

One commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, was relieved of her command and given a written reprimand.

England was the seventh guard at the prison outside Baghdad to plead guilty to abusing prisoners.

The most serious charge against England is one count of indecent acts, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.

Members of England's military police unit say she was not authorised to be in the "hard site" area where the abuses took place but was a frequent visitor to see Graner.

Shortly after Monday's hearing opened, Crisp sought to have the judge removed from the case, saying his involvement in past Abu Ghraib trials could create an appearance of bias.

The judge said he was assigned to handle the related Abu Ghraib cases because of their complexity and he denied the motion to excuse himself.

- REUTERS