A BOMB disposal expert killed in Iraq last week has been hailed as a child crusader.

Mines expert Ian Rimell, aged 53, from Kidderminster, and his bodyguard, Salem Ahmed Mohammed, were ambushed as they travelled along a road towards Mosul, Northern Iraq, on Thursday.

Mr Rimell, of Siskin Way, was killed instantly and Mr Mohammed was injured and remains in a serious condition in an Iraq hospital.

The duo were working for the Mines Action Group (MAG), a charity specialising in the clearance of mines and supported by the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

On the day he died, Mr Rimell had picked his way through a scrapheap of explosives before delivering the valuable metal to help rebuild a local school.

Mr Rimell, a father-of-three, was so concerned about the plight of Iraqi children picking their way through piles of discarded shells looking for valuable brass casings which could be sold over the border that he devised a pioneering scheme.

Assisted by a team of Kurds, with whom he was already working in Iraq, he hired 60 villagers to gather the munitions and to help dispose of them in a controlled explosion.

In order to reduce the attractiveness of looting, the men were paid a salary and allowed to keep any brass they retrieved.

"I don't want to wait until a child picks up some unexploded ordnance and blows off their hands or feet," Mr Rimell is reported to have said to his colleagues.

MAG's executive director, Lou McGrath, said the charity's staff were "devastated" by his death.

"He was a dedicated humanitarian who worked so well with the local people," she said.

Mr Rimell, who was awarded a British Empire medal, joined MAG in January after an already long career as an Army mine and bomb disposal expert.

His widow, Jennifer, said the family was devastated and angry by what had happened.

"He wasn't a soldier - he was in Iraq to help the people that lived there," she said.

"I cannot put into words the loss that we feel."

Mr Rimell had three children, Justine, aged 25, Robert, 22, and Simon, 19.