Tim Spicer

Born in 1952 in Aldershot, England, Spicer was educated at Sherborne School and followed his father into the British Army, attending Sandhurst and then was commissioned in the Scots Guards. He tried to join the Special Air Service (SAS), but failed the selection course. In 1982, his regiment was pulled from guard duty at the Tower of London and sent to the Falklands War, where he saw action at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown on 13 June.

After the Falklands War, Spicer, then at the rank of lieutenant colonel, was sent to Northern Ireland along with his regiment as part of Operation Banner during the Troubles. In 1992, Spicer was awarded the OBE "for operational service in Northern Ireland". On 4 September of that year, two soldiers under his command, Mark Wright and James Fisher, shot and killed an 18-year old Catholic teenager named Peter McBride in disputed circumstances. Immediately following the incident, Wright and Fisher were interviewed by Spicer and three other officers before they were interrogated by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). In his 1999 autobiography An Unorthodox Soldier, Spicer wrote that "I thought between us we could reach a balanced judgement on what happened."

The two soldiers were subsequently tried via court-martial, which convicted them of murder and sentenced the pair to life imprisonment at HM Prison Maghaberry on 10 February 1995. At the court-martial, Wright and James claimed that they feared that McBride was about to throw an improvised explosive device he had hidden in a plastic bag towards them, a claim which Spicer supported (the bag was subsequently found to only contain a t-shirt).

In reaction to their conviction, Spicer organised a lobbying campaign to free Wright and James, arguing that the two had legitimately believed that their lives were in imminent danger due to McBride's actions. The campaign successfully persuaded the British government to free the pair from HM Prison Maghaberry on 2 September 1998, after they had spent roughly three and a half years in prison. Wright and James were flown to Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire to meet Spicer, where they stayed until the Army Board decided to reinstate them into the Scots Guards a month later; the pair subsequently served in the Iraq War.

Sierra Leone Scandal: the arms-to-Africa affair

When employed by Sandline International, Spicer was involved in military operations in the Sierra Leone Civil War, which included importing weapons in apparent violation of the United Nations arms embargo. The contract was first offered to Globe Risk International who declined the contract on moral grounds. He had been contacted by Rakesh Saxena, an Indian financier hoping that a new government would grant him diamond and mineral concessions. The controversy over this incident, and whether the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) knew of Sandline's actions; inquiries into it concluded that the FCO had known of the actions, and that Spicer believed he was not breaking the embargo. However, former British diplomat Craig Murray claims that he was present at a Foreign office meeting when Spicer was explicitly read the text of UN Security Council Resolution 1132 which obliges member states to prevent their nationals from importing arms to Sierra Leone.

Spicer maintains neither he nor Sandline did anything illegal: Neither Sandline nor Tim Spicer did anything illegal and were, if anything, victims of a wider UK political controversy. Sandline was contracted to supply weapons and professional services to the legitimate elected government of Sierra Leone. This government had been deposed by a military junta in alliance with the Revolutionary United Front, a barbaric rebel movement. The British government knew of the action, which did not contravene international law or the UN Security Council’s arms embargo. The facts are borne out by a Government investigation, two inquiries and a UN Legal opinion.

Spicer has claimed that he always has called for greater involvement of the British government in the PMC issue. In fact, Lt. Col. Spicer said that six weeks before the arms-to-Africa affair blew up, Sandline had submitted a paper to the Foreign Office calling for greater regulation, but had not yet received a response. At the time, with no government response, Sandline was considering setting up its own oversight committee, including a senior retired general, a lawyer and a representative of the media.

In late 1999, Spicer left Sandline, which kept operating until 2004. The next year, he launched Crisis and Risk Management. In 2001, he changed the company's name to Strategic Consulting International and also set up a partner firm specialising in anti-piracy consulting, called Trident Maritime. In 2002, Spicer established Aegis Defence Services, which around the beginning of the Iraq War was consulting for the Disney Cruise Line.