Ex-soldier on murder bid charge fights for jury trial
A FORMER soldier charged in connection with a fatal shooting more than 40 years ago has launched a High Court challenge to facing trial without a jury.
Lawyers for 76-year-old Dennis Hutchings claim Northern Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions wrongly decided the criminal case should be determined by a judge sitting alone.
The seriously-ill pensioner, of Cawsand in Cornwall, is charged with the attempted murder of John Patrick Cunningham.
Mr Cunningham (27) was shot in the back as he ran away from an Army patrol near Benburb, Co Tyrone, at the height of the Troubles in 1974.
He was described in court as an innocent, vulnerable and unarmed man who had a fear of people in uniform.
Mr Hutchings, who served in the Life Guards, was charged with attempted murder after the killing was re-examined by police.
It is alleged that he and another soldier both fired their guns, although it is not known who discharged the fatal bullet.
The decision to hold a non-jury trial was taken to guard against a potentially perverse verdict being reached.
Described as “dangerously ill” by his legal representatives, Mr Hutchings has yet to be arraigned.
His barrister argued that the decision was wrong in law and based on “bald assertions” about the risk to the administration of justice.
He told two senior judges that it had been an irrational conclusion without regard for the normalisation of security arrangements in Northern Ireland.
But Gerald Simpson QC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, countered that the 2007 Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act contains a wide-ranging condition for a non-jury trial.
“Any indirect connection with political or religious hostility will bring the matter within the condition,” he insisted.
Mr Simpson contended that the context and background to the shooting had to be taken into account.
Judgment was reserved in the application for judicial review.