Fury as ex-troops face new killings witch-hunt
UP to 1,000 retired soldiers in their sixties and seventies face a police witch-hunt some 40 years after they battled terrorism in Northern Ireland.
MPs and military chiefs last night condemned the ‘disgraceful’ decision by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to re-examine every single British Army killing during the Troubles.
Its taxpayer-funded Legacy Investigation Branch is to look at 238 ‘fatal incidents’ involving the Army in Ulster, which led to 302 deaths.
It will mean UK veterans being investigated as potential murder or manslaughter suspects over actions they took decades ago at the height of the IRA’s terrorist campaign.
The news comes only two months after Theresa May pledged that Britain’s forces would be protected from such witch-hunts. The veterans could face new charges, trials and even jail.
Ironically, the new inquiry was announced on the day that the human rights lawyer who led the hounding of British troops who fought in the Iraq War faced disgrace.
Phil Shiner admitted drumming up the claims against soldiers.
He pleaded guilty to a string of misconduct charges and confessed he acted without
integrity when he accused soldiers of war crimes.
Although the Northern Ireland review will also look at deaths that the IRA were responsible for, many suspected terrorists have been granted pardons or ‘comfort letters’ intended to protect them against prosecution.
At the Conservative Party Conference in October, the Prime Minister had promised to protect British troops from witch-hunts.
She said: ‘We will never again – in any future conflict – let those activist Left-wing human rights lawyers harangue and harass the bravest of the brave, the men and women of our Armed Forces.’
But there was fury yesterday at the news that hundreds of elderly UK veterans – many suffering serious illnesses – will be put through another ordeal.
MPs and military chiefs compared the treatment of British soldiers to that of suspected IRA bomber John Downey, who escaped prosecution for the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, which left four soldiers and seven horses dead, because he was given a police guarantee he was immune from prosecution. Downey has always denied involvement and pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey in 2014.
Veterans – who will receive free Ministry of Defence-funded legal advice – believe the investigation is politically motivated and designed to appease IRA families.
Tory MP Johnny Mercer, a former Army officer who has campaigned on behalf of British troops, said: ‘This is a witch-hunt, as well as a total and complete betrayal by the Government of those who have done its bidding.
‘If we could demonstrate in Government just some of the courage our Armed Forces have displayed over the years in Northern Ireland, the entire historical allegations money machine would end.’
A former serving member of 14 Intelligence Company who served for nine years during the Troubles added: ‘You cannot have a normal life. My wife is very conscious of it because she has a husband who has this hanging over him. Peace should not be one-sided and this has become solely about the Armed Forces who stood between the evil IRA and the British public they were trying to burn alive.’
Downing Street also intervened, saying the Police Service of Northern Ireland was wrong to focus ‘almost entirely’ on the past actions of the security services when looking at the Troubles.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman added: ‘It is important to recognise that the overwhelming majority of those who served in Northern Ireland did so with great bravery and distinction.’
Last night, the PSNI insisted that its Legacy Investigation Branch was reviewing every one of the 3,200 deaths during the Troubles, including those murdered by Republican terrorists.
The force said it was also reviewing the cases of 187 on-the-run paramilitary suspects who received ‘comfort letters’ – dubbed ‘get-out-of-jail-free cards’– mistakenly saying they were not wanted by police.
The number of British soldiers set to be probed is understood to be about 850. This is because many times several soldiers opened fire at once during shootings.
Of the 302 people killed by the British Army, about half were IRA or Loyalist terrorists, while the others were considered tragic accidents such as civilians caught in the crossfire.
Sir Hugh Orde set up the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team in 2006, when he was chief constable of the force, to review every death during the Troubles. It aimed to bring closure to those who had lost loved ones in the strife
Any leads were passed to a specialist unit for investigation. But the unit, staffed by expensive retired police officers from the mainland, was disbanded in 2013 following budget cuts and a critical report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Chief Constable Matt Baggott, then head of the PSNI, replaced the HET with the in-house Legacy Investigation Branch. Because of concerns over the quality of the military reviews, these killings were re-examined.
One ex-British soldier, ex-Warrant Officer (Class 1) Dennis Hutchings, 75, has already been charged with attempted murder after a probe into the fatal shooting of an IRA suspect – later found to be innocent – in 1974.
Mr Hutchings, who is due to stand trial next year over the death of John Pat Cunningham, 27, near the village of Benburb, Co Armagh, said: ‘I feel anger, totally, totally let down, I feel hung out to dry. That’s what has happened to all of us. We are being thrown to the wolves.
‘We were doing our duty, a job that we were sent us to do. It is a life or death decision. It might not be your life, it could be one of your patrol’s lives.’
Two days before the shooting, Mr Hutchings’s patrol had been caught in a firefight after discovering an IRA gang transporting a cache of arms. Four terrorists were captured and later convicted. The great-grandfather added: ‘I kept people safe from terrorists and now I’m being treated myself like a terrorist. It’s disgraceful.’
Colonel Richard Kemp, who served eight tours in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, said soldiers should not be ‘hounded this way’.
Yesterday, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, head of the PSNI’s Legacy and Justice Department, said: ‘The HMIC report into HET raised significant concerns. The decision was taken to re-examine military cases to ensure the quality of the review reached the required standard. This was announced as part of our response to the HMIC report at the time, it is not a new development. It was communicated publicly in July 2013.
‘There is no new single probe or bespoke inquiry into deaths attributed to the British Army. All Troubles-related deaths will be reviewed by LIB.’
‘This is a complete betrayal’
JUST when it appeared that the shameful witch-hunt of British troops who served in Afghanistan and Iraq was coming to an end. Just as the sleazy ‘human rights’ lawyer Phil Shiner finally faces his comeuppance from regulators for his immoral touting for business (a fact exposed by this newspaper). And just weeks after Theresa May assured us there would be no more vexatious hounding of the ‘bravest of the brave’, a new front opens in the relentless persecution of our armed forces.
More than four decades after Bloody Sunday, and 18 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, police in Northern Ireland are to investigate anew all 302 killings by the Army during the Troubles.
Around 1,000 ex-servicemen – many now in their 60s and 70s – will fear the knock at the door from the Orwellian-sounding Legacy Investigation Branch.
Officers insist they will be even-handed and examine the thousands of murders committed by Republican – and some Loyalist – terrorists. But isn’t it inevitable their focus will end up on British soldiers?
As we know all too well, the IRA’s victims were often ‘disappeared’. With no hope of finding a body, there is little chance of a successful prosecution.
Nor is there any hope of bringing to justice the 187 IRA terrorists given immunity in shameful and illegal secret deals stitched up by the Blair government – such as alleged IRA terrorist John Downey, who escaped prosecution over the slaughter of four Household Cavalrymen in a nail bomb attack in Hyde Park.
How skewed are the scales of justice that they sleep soundly in their beds at night while soldiers they would merrily have murdered could be put on trial.
And of course, there is still no justice for countless victims and the bereaved from IRA atrocities such as the Birmingham and Omagh bombings.
Meanwhile, after the ordeal of the 12year Saville Inquiry, seven soldiers could face prosecution over Bloody Sunday.
And all the while, IRA leaders such as Gerry Adams and his henchman, Martin McGuinness, parade around like avuncular elder statesmen, knowing they will never face a single question about their bloodsoaked pasts.
The origins of this fresh outrage may pre-date Mrs May’s arrival in Downing Street, but she must do everything in her power to bring it to an end. Otherwise, there won’t be a single soldier left in the land prepared to fight for his country.