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Mrs Russell told Josie to run home for help but she was caught, blindfolded with strips of towel from her swimming bag, tied to a tree and beaten.Josie spent five months in hospital then moved with her father, Dr Shaun Russell, to a village near Caernarfon, North Wales.Even today, she still has difficulty speaking and understanding speech. bring shame upon our country, but we should recognise that they in no way reflect the true character of Britain’s armed forces.”Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, was said to have been appalled when he saw the photographs last week. It took a year with a speech therapist, and dolls, for Josie to tell what had happened.Michael Stone, a mentally ill drug addict with convictions for violence, got out of his car with a claw hammer as the family walked past, and demanded money. Mrs Russell said they did not have any and offered to go home and get some. “I think it’s very unfortunate that what is going to make me very happy would make the Russell family very unhappy, but I think we have got one thing in common, we want justice, all of us We want justice, all of us. Stone’s sister said outside court that their fight would go on: “We are hoping to go to the House of Lords Damien Daley is a liar and I stand by that There isn’t a scrap of evidence.

There is the word of one heroin addict, a lying person’s cell confession. That’s the only piece of evidence and as I keep saying time and time again it is plain he cannot be believed The man is a liar. Stone, who was flanked by two security men in the dock at the Court of Appeal in London, shrugged at his sister, Barbara, as Lord Justice Rose announced the decision. Damien Daley claimed to have heard Stone confessing through the gaps in the heating pipes while being held in a neighbouring cell at Canterbury jail. He said Stone had talked about cracking the victims’ heads like eggs and tying up one victim who tried to run away. There was no scientific or identification evidence that linked Stone directly to the attack.

The three appeal judges spent three days considering the case and will give reasons for their decision tomorrow. The Crown said Daley had no reason to lie about Stone and that the jury at the second trial knew that the prison informer was a lying drug user, but chose to believe his testimony. “We are not here to decide issues of international law,” he said.The court martial continues.. Michael Stone’s attempt to overturn his conviction for the murders of Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan was rejected by the Court of Appeal yesterday. The decision by the three judges was welcomed by the husband of Mrs Russell as “fair to all parties”.

On the previous occasion the court quashed Stone’s conviction, but he was found guilty at a second trial of the murders at Chillenden in Kent in 1996. He was also convicted of attempting to murder Megan’s sister, Josie, then aged nine, by bludgeoning her with a hammer, causing severe head injuries. He is serving three life sentences.Shaun Russell, the father of Josie, said in a statement after yesterday’s ruling: “The justice system has taken its course and as far as I can see it has been fair to all parties. Josie and I have made an effort to put our memories of this terrible affair behind us, especially as nothing can bring back Josie’s mother Lin and sister Megan.”Josie, now aged 17, has made a remarkable recovery from her injuries and lives with her father in north Wales.Stone, 44, a drug addict with a psychopathic disorder and a previous conviction for attacking a man with a hammer during a robbery, was returned to prison yesterday.His legal team had said his conviction in 1998 was unsafe because it was based on the testimony of a self-confessed liar and heroin addict who was trying to curry favour with the police and prison authorities. The court martial was earlier told by prosecution lawyers that Major Taylor’s superior officers were aware he had issued an order which defied the Geneva convention, but had decided not to take legal action against him.Judge Advocate Michael Hunter, who is presiding over the court martial, insisted yesterday that the trial would make no attempt to deal with alleged breaches of the Geneva Conventions in the case. The other defendants have pleaded not guilty to all the charges but could face up to 10 years’ imprisonment and dismissal in disgrace from the armed forces if convicted.The lawyer representing Cpl Kenyon argued yesterday that the soldier was a victim of his senior officer who had issued orders for him to detain prisoners and work them hard.Joseph Giret said his client was a first-rate soldier whose Army record had hitherto been exemplary until he was arrested in connection with the scandal “Cpl Kenyon was in fact a war hero. He saved the lives of soldiers trapped in a Warrior combat vehicle and his service record is unblemished,” Mr Giret added.Using an argument expected to form the basis of the defence of the soldiers, Mr Giret said: “The only reason Cpl Kenyon is in the dock stems from those who gave the order to implement Operation Ali Baba.”Defence lawyers have claimed that the Ali Baba operation at the camp, a vast compound of warehouses on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Basra, had created a climate which encouraged the accused to commit the alleged offences at the time.Prosecution lawyers have admitted Major Taylor’s alleged order to “work prisoners hard” was in breach of the Geneva Conventions.

They moved into buildings and stripped out carpets, wiring, everything. We realised that something had to be done,” he added.But the colonel stressed that soldiers received clear guidelines on how to treat prisoners and detained civilians through annual briefings, instructions in the laws of armed conflict and aide-memoires issued to them while on duty. The court martial was shown a 10-minute video instructing soldiers how to behave towards civilians that was used in army training.”The guidelines were simply that civilian prisoners should be held for a maximum of two hours and then handed to the military police. An order that a civilian should be punished is completely outside the army’s remit,” he added.Cpl Kenyon is accused of prejudicing a military order and abetting his two fellow NCOs at the Bread Basket Camp when they allegedly tortured and sexually humiliated Iraqi civilians who had been detained for looting on 15 May 2003. Lance Corporals Cooley and Larkin face charges of assault and disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind.L/Cpl Larkin has pleaded guilty to a charge of assault.