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The music of Beatle George Harrison and Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias was used to "inflict psychological and physical damage" on prisoners in dictator Augusto Pinochet's Chile, according to a new study.

Pinochet, who seized power as part of a military coup 40 years ago today and died in 2006, regularly tortured political opponents with songs such as Harrison's My Sweet Lord and the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange.

"Music brought prisoners together because it was a way to deal with their terrible suffering," said University of Manchester researcher Dr Katia Chornik.

"But music was also a form of testimony. Many prisoners did not officially exist, so many were to disappear without trace and songs were a way of remembering who they were and what they believed in.

"Pinochet's system also used music to indoctrinate detainees, as a form of punishment and a soundtrack to torture.

"Played at intensely high volumes for days on end, the otherwise popular songs were used to inflict psychological and physical damage."

The torture sessions were carried out in torture houses, concentration camps and prisons in the South American country.

Former inmates cited other music that was played to them, such as Harry Nilsson's Without You, Alone Again by Gilbert O' Sullivan and Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens.

Dr Chornik's project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, is named The Sounds Of Memory: Music And Political Captivity In Pinochet's Chile.