Iraqi prisoners ‘were sexually humiliated by female British soldier,’ according to a news story published on The Times website on January 2, 2010.

Detailed allegations against a female interrogator known as “Katy” have been made by five former prisoners.

They are among 14 new cases of alleged abuse of prisoners by the British troops, mainly concerning a shadowy British Army interrogation unit known as the Joint Forward Intelligence Team, which was stationed at the Shaibah Logistics Base near the southern Iraqi city of Basra between 2003 and 2007.

In a letter to UK Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth, Phil Shiner, the lawyer representing the five detainees said "The forms of ill-treatment suffered by the claimants include physical beatings, deprivation of food, exposure to the cold and excessive heat, threats of rape and violence, sexual humiliation and solitary confinement."

In all 47 lawsuits brought by former Iraqi detainees are being investigated by the UK authorities.

A spokesman for the UK Ministry of Defense told The Times that all the allegations were already under investigation or would be investigated in the future.

In November the UK government announced a public inquiry into claims that British troops abused and killed prisoners captured after a 2004 firefight known as the Danny Boy Battle. Some of the allegations arising from the incident refer to actions said to have taken place at the Shaibah Logistics Base.