Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
£625,000 IN DAMAGES FOR 80YR-OLD WIDOW OF BLOODY SUNDAY VICTIM
Dad-of-8’s family get payout for 1972 Army killing
THE widow of a man shot dead by a soldier on Bloody Sunday is to receive £625,000 in damages, the High Court heard yesterday.
The settlement was reached in 80-year-old Ita Mckinney’s legal action over her husband Gerry’s killing in Derry in January 1972.
Mr Mckinney, a 35-yearold a father-of-eight, was among 13 people shot dead when British Army paratroopers opened fire on civil rights demonstrators.
One of the others wounded on the day died later.
In a separate resolution, the brother of single man Michael Mcdaid, 20, is to receive £75,000 in damages for his death on Bloody Sunday. The outcomes follow last week’s award of £193,000 compensation to Michael Quinn, who was shot in the face as a schoolboy by one of the soldiers.
Mr Justice Mcalinden congratulated lawyers involved in the test cases for reaching the settlements “without the need for any sensitive or distressing evidence to be given”.
Claims were brought against the Ministry of Defence by victims and their families after a major tribunal established the innocence of all those killed and wounded.
The Saville Inquiry’s findings in 2010 prompted then Prime Minister David Cameron to publicly apologise for the actions of the soldiers. He described the killings as unjustified and unjustifiable”.
With liability accepted, the court battle centred on the level of damages.
Mr Mckinney was shot in Abbey Park in the city after going on the civil rights march. A qualified engineer and toolmaker by trade, he had been a renowned entrepreneur prior to his death.
He and his wife Ita had seven children, with an eighth born a week after Bloody Sunday.
Mrs Mckinney is to receive £625,000 plus costs in the action she brought on behalf of her late husband’s dependants.
Kevin Mcdaid, who sued over the shooting of his brother Michael near a barricade on Rossville Street, will receive £75,000 damages, also with costs.
David Ringland QC, for the MOD, indicated similar agreements are now expected to be reached in nine other fatal cases following the “breakthrough”.