{"id":53977,"date":"2012-06-03T16:42:40","date_gmt":"2012-06-03T13:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=53977"},"modified":"2014-01-07T17:13:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T15:13:48","slug":"bbc-bodyguard-admits-to-burning-body-of-tsunami-baby-likening-it-to-a-blocked-toilet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2012\/06\/03\/bbc-bodyguard-admits-to-burning-body-of-tsunami-baby-likening-it-to-a-blocked-toilet\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC bodyguard admits to burning body of tsunami baby&#8230;likening it to a &#8216;blocked toilet&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Journalist Ben Brown&#8217;s security chief said corpse left on BBC HQ doorstep posed same danger as a &#8216;blocked toilet&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>TV executives accused of cover-up after trying to halt publication of book that exposed incineration<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-53978\" title=\"bbc_bodyguard\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bbc_bodyguard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"184\" height=\"254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bbc_bodyguard.jpg 306w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bbc_bodyguard-217x300.jpg 217w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 184px) 100vw, 184px\" \/>A BBC bodyguard has confessed to burning the body of a baby on a funeral pyre made of rubbish after the 2004 tsunami \u2013 because he considered it a threat to the health of his reporting team.<br \/>\nCraig Summers, 52, discovered the body outside the house in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where he was staying with journalist Ben Brown and his production team as they covered the aftermath of the disaster.<br \/>\nBut instead of reporting it to the local authorities, he burned the body of the boy and swore two other witnesses, including BBC producer Peter Leng, to secrecy. There is no suggestion that Mr Brown knew about the incident.<br \/>\nWriting in his new book Bodyguard: My Life On The Frontline, Summers compared the body to an obstacle such as a \u2018blocked toilet\u2019.<br \/>\n\u2018I pride myself in my work,\u2019 writes Summers, now head of security at Sky TV. \u2018Nobody got sick on that trip. Nobody even came close to diarrhoea and I knew that I had done my job keeping everyone else healthy. I ran a tight ship ensuring everyone always washed their hands with wet wipes.<br \/>\n\u2018The baby was an obstacle to their health; the next day it would be a blocked toilet. I hadn\u2019t known it was coming but I had to deal with it and I would do the same again.\u2019<br \/>\nThe revelation comes four months after the BBC\u2019s Head of Newsgathering, Fran Unsworth, and Head of Safety, ex-Army officer Paul Greeves, tried to persuade Summers not to publish the biography.<br \/>\nAccording to the bodyguard, they summoned him to a meeting in January after he sent them a draft copy of the manuscript, and asked him to abandon the project.<br \/>\nIt is not known what they objected to within the book \u2013 although the confession does not paint the Corporation in a good light.<br \/>\nSummers, a former commando, served with British Forces in the Falklands and Balkans before being appointed the Corporation\u2019s safety and security adviser in 2001, working with the High Risk Team \u2013 which \u2018provides advice to programme-makers deploying to hostile or dangerous environments\u2019.He spent ten years accompanying journalists to war zones and scenes of natural disaster, working with reporters including John Simpson and Nicholas Witchell. He was with Simpson, in Iraq in 2003, when their vehicle was blown up and their translator killed.<br \/>\nIt was also his brief to look after celebrities \u2013 including, on occasion, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Gary Lineker and Matthew Pinsent. Summers, who also carried out undercover operations for the BBC, left the Corporation last July, after accepting redundancy, and now works as Sky\u2019s Broadcast Security Operations Manager.<br \/>\nIt was on January 7, 2005, 12 days after the tsunami, when he woke at dawn to find the body of the baby boy, aged between one and two, with matted black hair and closed eyes, lying on the doorstep.<br \/>\n\u2018There had to be a reason for this,\u2019 he writes in his book. \u2018This wasn\u2019t random or down to chance \u2013 someone had specifically left this baby at what they knew to be the BBC house.\u2019<br \/>\nYet instead of informing anybody in the house, or contacting the local authorities, Summers took matters into his own hands. \u2018I picked it up with my bare hands and looked around,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Nobody was watching. I walked over to the rubbish, which night after night would pile high in the streets waiting for the authorities to burn the next day by the side of the roads to stave off the threat of rats. Removing some cardboard from the tip, I covered the baby with it.<br \/>\n\u2018I heard a voice say, \u201cWhat\u2019s that Craig?\u201d It was Bob, the Australian paramedic who was staying next door to us. I walked towards him. He didn\u2019t need me to answer. \u201cWhat are you going to do?\u201d he asked.<br \/>\n\u2018My response was instant and came from the mouth of a soldier in the zone and on autopilot. My sole priority was to protect the BBC crew from infection.<br \/>\n\u2018\u2009\u201cI\u2019m going to burn it,\u201d I answered. \u201cThat\u2019s the best thing to do.\u201d\u2009\u2019<br \/>\nBob went to get some petrol from a jerrycan as Summers laid the baby on a box in the centre of the rubbish. The BBC bodyguard then soaked the body in petrol and set fire to it. When the flames burned down ten minutes later, the two men bagged up the smouldering rubbish.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I didn\u2019t look to see the remains of the baby,\u2019 Summers writes, \u2018both our heads were looking down while shovelling.<br \/>\n\u2018Nothing was said. We just got on with it. We may have left a skull on the floor \u2013 I can\u2019t recall. I just wanted it done.\u2019<br \/>\nThe incident was witnessed by BBC producer Peter Leng, who was standing in the doorway of the house used by the Corporation\u2019s staff.<br \/>\n\u2018I had no choice but to come clean,\u2019 Summers continued. \u2018I told him we had to keep this to ourselves \u2013 I didn\u2019t want anyone else to find out. \u201cI wondered what all the flies were,\u201d he replied. \u201cHow do you feel about it?\u201d<br \/>\n\u2018\u2009\u201cIt\u2019s a sad situation but I am surprised someone has dumped it on our doorstep,\u201d I answered bluntly. Only years later did Peter confess that he had told a couple of people \u2013 he also said he was grateful and couldn\u2019t have done the same thing.\u2019<br \/>\nSummers remains convinced that he did the right thing that day.<br \/>\nJustifying his behaviour, he writes: \u2018I was working and this was the job I had to do. If they were still alive, I couldn\u2019t give the parents that closure because there were no clues on the baby. I didn\u2019t know how it got here but I felt sure it was orphaned and deliberately dumped. I couldn\u2019t change its fate. I did what I had to do. There were no alternatives but to cremate the baby.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It was the most humane thing to do before it became riddled with maggots and was left to rot in the street. I couldn\u2019t put a sign up outside the house saying: \u201cOne ex-baby here \u2013 please knock.\u2019\u2019<br \/>\n\u2018If the parents hadn\u2019t died, why would it be dumped?\u2019<br \/>\nLast night Summers told The Mail on Sunday: \u2018At the time we felt it was the easiest and most humane thing to do. There were a quarter of a million dead people there and the majority were being dumped in open pits.<br \/>\n\u2018The baby was completely unidentifiable \u2013 it was infested with maggots and there were no features on it at all.\u2019<br \/>\nA BBC spokeswoman said last night: \u2018It\u2019s his account, which he has put into context.<br \/>\n\u2018From our point of view, we don\u2019t have anything to say. We don\u2019t discuss private conversations but managers sometimes talk to staff, or former staff, who have written books about the BBC \u2013 particularly if there are legal or safety issues.\u2019<br \/>\nLast night Peter Leng did not wish to comment and Ben Brown did not respond to calls.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Daily Mail<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journalist Ben Brown&#8217;s security chief said corpse left on BBC HQ doorstep posed same danger as a &#8216;blocked toilet&#8217; TV executives accused of cover-up after trying to halt publication of book that exposed incinerationA BBC bodyguard has confessed to burning the body of a baby on a funeral pyre made of rubbish after the 2004 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":53978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[8181,8182,8183],"class_list":["post-53977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk","tag-bbc-bodyguard","tag-bbc-executives","tag-burning-body-of-tsunami-baby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}