Soldier who shot Sinn Fein worker prosecuted 30 years on
A FORMER British soldier is to be prosecuted for shooting a man dead as he walked through an Army checkpoint during the Troubles more than three decades ago.
David Jonathan Holden said his finger slipped on the trigger of his heavy machine gun as his hands were wet.
Following the incident in February 1988, the then 18-year-old was initially charged with the manslaughter of Aiden McAnespie, 23, only for the case to be dropped two years later.
However, Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) yesterday announced it is to charge the former Grenadier Guardsman, now 48, for gross negligence manslaughter.
The decision was met with fury by Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, who accused the Government of conspiring in a ‘ politically motivated widespread vendetta against our troops’.
Veterans from the Troubles can currently face prosecution for alleged historic offences committed up to 50 years ago.
Mr McAnespie, a Sinn Fein election worker, was hit in the back by a bullet as it ricocheted off the road behind him in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone. The British Army claimed three shots were fired from inside a fortified observation post after a machine gun Holden was moving slipped from his hands. Before his death, Mr McAnespie had claimed he had been harassed and threatened as he passed through the checkpoint.
In 1990, manslaughter charges against Holden were dropped. He was later fined for negligent discharge of his weapon, but allowed to return to duty. That same year, he was given a medical discharge from the Army.
Following calls from the victim’s family for a fresh inquest, Northern Ireland’s Attorney General, John Larkin, asked the PPS to re- examine the case. It is understood the decision to prosecute hinged on a fresh ballistics report.
A PPS spokesman said: ‘Following careful consideration of all the evidence currently available, and having received advice from senior counsel, it has been decided to prosecute a former soldier for the offence of gross negligence manslaughter.’
Last month the Government promised to set up a new unit to investigate unsolved killings during the Troubles. However, the plans caused uproar among some MPs as they did not include a statute of limitations which would prevent veterans from being prosecuted.
Col Kemp told the Telegraph: ‘This British soldier was dealt with through properly constituted British legal process in 1990. Charging him again now is part of a politically motivated widespread vendetta against our troops facilitated by the British government.’