PARLIAMENT UNITES TO END ARMY WITCH-HUNT
Scores of MPs and peers demand legal protection for Ulster veterans
SCORES of MPs and prominent peers will today tell Theresa May to end the veterans witch-hunt in Northern Ireland.
Nearly one in three Tory MPs and large numbers of peers from several parties have signed an open letter calling on her to halt the persecution of veterans over incidents going back nearly 50 years.
The letter underlines the growing disgust at the way soldiers are being hounded years after campaigns have finished.
Defence Minister Mark Lancaster told MPs yesterday: “There are frankly few
issues in my 14 years in Parliament where I have found the House unify to such an extent.
“I can only reassure the House, speaking myself as a serviceman, how keen we are to try to address this issue and I am sure that in due course there will be an announcement in the House.”
Four British veterans – three of them elderly – are facing trial over Northern Ireland shootings dating back as far as 1972 as part of the investigations into so-called “legacy” killings.
All were cleared of wrongdoing at the time. They include Dennis Hutchings, 77, who is seriously ill. The Daily Express, which is crusading for justice for the veterans, yesterday revealed that the pressure of the case has driven him to suicidal thoughts.
But he is so determined to prove his innocence that he is refusing kidney dialysis for fear his case will be dismissed on medical grounds. He said last night: “This letter is very very good. It is heartening to get this support.”
Another 278 cases involving British soldiers in Northern Ireland also face re-investigation. Yet under then premier Tony Blair’s 1998 Good Friday Agreement 500 terrorists were freed from prison early and about 300 suspects were given letters guaranteeing they would not be prosecuted.
Earlier this year Theresa May told MPs the balance of investigations in relation to The Troubles, from 1968 to 1998, was “patently unfair”. More than 3,500 people were killed including 722 members of the forces and police.
Government figures suggest that 60 per cent of killings were caused by Republican terrorists, mainly factions of the IRA, 30 per cent by Loyalist paramilitaries, and 10 per cent by members of state forces “who in almost all cases were acting within the law”.
The persecution of Northern Ireland veterans has echoes of the hounding of soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More than 3,500 allegations were levelled at Iraq veterans, most by a now disgraced firm of solicitors. This led to taxpayer costs of £60million without leading to a single prosecution.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is known to favour a statute of limitations, or time limit, for prosecutions of British troops.
Pledge
In June several MPs, including former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon, signed a letter to Mrs May urging her to honour a pledge at the 2017 election to protect troops from “persistent legal claims”.
The letter declared: “The legal assault endured by our brave service men and women following operational service in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan is a national disgrace.
“If unchecked, it will continue to undermine the crucial bond of trust between the state and our military and enfeeble our nation’s fighting power, our national security and our foreign policy. We call upon the Government to legislate for a statue of limitations to ensure that British soldiers who have served honourably and done their duty will no longer face repeated or spurious allegations, many years – even decades – after service.”
Signatories included former Tory leader and Northern Ireland veteran Iain Duncan Smith, Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson Sir Nicholas Soames, former defence ministers Mark Francois and Sir Mike Penning, along with the chairman of the Defence Committee Julian Lewis.
Meanwhile campaigners called on the Queen to intervene. They spoke out after releasing a photograph of Mr Hutchings sitting with her after a regimental lunch with the Life Guards.
It shows then Regimental Quartermaster Corporal Hutchings with the Queen and his comrades at Combermere Barracks, near Windsor Castle, in 1978. The Queen is colonel in chief of the Life Guards, part of her own Household Division. Four years earlier Mr
Hutchings had been cleared of any wrongdoing in a shooting incident in Ulster. In 2015, after another investigation, the authorities again closed the case.
But now Mr Hutchings faces trial over that same incident while convicted IRA terrorists walk the streets. Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans co-founder Alan Barry, a former Grenadier Guardsman and member of the Household Division, said: “I ask the Queen to intervene and write to the Prime Minister on behalf of Dennis Hutchings and the other sol- diers facing trial.”
The picture of Mr Hutchings comes from a documentary, The Great Betrayal, which Mr Barry is making about the treatment of Northern Ireland veterans.
Mr Barry said: “Dennis Hutchings is a man who served 26 years in the Army and was awarded the Long Service Good Conduct Medal which means he gave exemplary service. He was mentioned in despatches for his bravery in catching six IRA terrorists and uncovering an arms and explosives cache.
“That was two nights before the incident over which he was charged. That is why the area was so tense on the day of the incident.
“This photo shows him four years later sitting next to the Queen, one of the greatest honours bestowed on a British soldier.
“I wonder what the Queen thinks of this? She obviously cannot comment but at the end of the day I wonder what the Royal Family actually thinks about the way that British soldiers are being hounded. “What an appalling way to treat a man who served his country with distinction.” Mr Hutchings denies attempted murder and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, relating to John Patrick Cunningham, 27, who was unarmed and had learning difficulties, in County Tyrone in June 1974. He was shot in the back as he ran away from an Army patrol in what Mr Hutchings accepts was “a tragedy”. His family contend he ran across a field because he feared men in uniform. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
ANGER is an underrated virtue. Sometimes there are issues to which the only appropriate response is outrage. The case of 77-year-old Life Guards veteran Dennis Hutchings is one such example.
Mr Hutchings, a former Regimental Corporal Major (the equivalent in the Life Guards of a Regimental Sergeant Major), spent 26 years serving his country. He regularly risked his life to protect the rest of us and was mentioned in despatches for catching armed terrorists in Northern Ireland. He was also awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. He is as great a role model for our nation as one can imagine.
And how have we, as a nation, rewarded him? By hounding him into his late 70s as part of a witch-hunt against British servicemen and servicewomen who did duty in Northern Ireland. His retirement is a never-ending nightmare.
Mr Hutchings is being prosecuted over an alleged incident that happened 44 years ago – despite having twice been cleared of the same allegation already.
HE HAS been charged with attempted murder and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent over the death in County Tyrone in June 1974 of John Patrick Cunningham, a 27-yearold man who was unarmed and had learning difficulties. Mr Cunningham was shot in the back as he ran from an Army patrol.
A joint Royal Ulster Constabulary and Royal Military Police investigation formally cleared Mr Hutchings in 1974 of any wrongdoing. Then in 2015 he was re-investigated and again told the case was closed. But just six weeks later a third investigation was opened and Mr Hutchings was charged.
He says the stress has made him suicidal. And now, despite suffering life-threatening kidney disease, he has had to refuse vital treatment to ensure that he is able to clear his name in court.
He has been told that he must go on dialysis, but has refused so he gets that chance. As he puts it: “Once I start dialysis I’ll have to go every other day for six or seven hours, once travelling is included. I am concerned that it will stop the case on medical grounds. I want this case to go to court. If we get a decision on my case it will affect so many others.”
Mr Hutchings’ experience may be shocking, but he is far from alone. Another three British veterans who served in Northern Ireland have been charged as part of the so-called “legacy” investigations after the Good Friday Agreement.
The allegations date back to 1972. Like Mr Hutchings, the other three have already been cleared of any crime. But they, like Mr Hutchings, are also being pursued by the authorities.
Prosecutors are also said to be considering charging 18 veterans over the Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry in 1972. Indeed, a further 278 cases are being investigated. It is important to stress that these are not “new” incidents, that no one previously investigated. Many are old allegations that have been exhaustively investigated – twice, in the case of Mr Hutchings.
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that these investigations and prosecutions are not about justice and are not about the rule of law – they are about politics and the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland. And Mr Hutchings and his fellow veterans are being used as pawns in a wider political game. If that seems far-fetched, consider this. Under the Good Friday Agreement, 500 convicted terrorists – from the IRA and other groups – were released from prison and are now free to lead normal lives, with 300 suspected but not yet convicted of terrorist offences being given “Letters of Comfort” or “On the Run Letters”, stating that they would not be prosecuted.
So while 500 men and women found guilty by the courts have been released, given a pat on the back and told they can walk out of prison and live their lives as they wish, the brave Army veterans who risked their lives to protect British citizens from that terrorism are now themselves being hounded by the authorities.
IF THIS is not an inversion of decency and morality, what is? So far, I have referred vaguely to “the authorities”. But let us be clear what that means. It means our Government, and successive Northern Ireland Secretaries who have sat back and done nothing while this outrage continues. For a Conservative Government to preside over this disgusting behaviour towards our veterans brings shame on Tory MPs.
Quite rightly, at the weekend Johnny Mercer, a former soldier and now Conservative MP, laid into the Government, pointing out that this raises broader questions about its rule.
“There is no greater Petri dish in which to observe the abject failure of this Government to govern, to lead, than Dennis,” he said.
“His case is replicated thousands of times. Everyone must choose a hill to perish on, and this is mine. That’s why I have been campaigning to end historic cases being brought against our troops.
“I cannot continue to support an administration that cannot function, to the point where it allows cases such as the one affecting Dennis. When all is said and done, politics is about people, the lives of real people. It is not a stage to prance around on in London, feigning strength and conviction. It is how it actually feels to the British people.”
Mr Hutchings has suffered appallingly and needlessly. So have the others under investigation over what is, remember, a witch-hunt.
Politicians started this disgrace – and they must end it.
‘He says the stress has made him suicidal’