Why must we still shame our heroes?
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HE’D BEEN a military hero. Serving with the 1st battalion of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, he’d survived being blown up at least once by the IRA and also served in Iraq. But the criminal decision by this government to launch yet another inquiry into killings during the Troubles in Northern Ireland was too much for Eddie Murphy. He killed himself.
This is as disgraceful as it is tragic. Murphy, 50 and known in the military as “Spud”, was one of a growing number of ex-soldiers facing distressing and unwarranted inquiries into events that, often, took place more than half a century ago. For him, it was too much to bear. And other brave men – who served their country and daily faced the possibility of being blown up, shot or maimed by terrorists – are preparing to face their ordeals.
It’s claimed statistics show military veterans are 54 times more likely to be prosecuted than terrorists, bringing shame on this and previous governments.the figures came to light as a High Court claim accused ministers of discrimination against ex-soldiers. It was started by another exsoldier – a great-grandfather with kidney failure who is to face trial later this month over a Northern Ireland shooting in 1974.
The prosecution of Dennis
Hutchings, 78, is an acute embarrassment for the Government as it pledged no new prosecutions would take place over historic allegations unless new evidence had come to light.
His legal team has argued that 3,264 deaths were caused by terrorists during the Troubles, compared with 361 by British military personnel. However, while six veterans are facing prosecution only one alleged terrorist is facing charges.
Mr Hutchings’s case follows the fatal shooting in the back of a man of 27 with a mental age between six and 10 in 1974. After a three-month police inquiry, patrol leader Hutchings and two others were cleared of any criminal act. He was investigated again in 2011 and police concluded “there was no ground for taking any action”. However, despite that assurance, in 2016 he was charged with attempted murder.
How is a man whose trial will have to be halted every couple of days for lifesaving kidney dialysis treatment be expected to give a lucid account of events 45 years ago? The same can surely be said of all the other witnesses.
Mr Hutchings, who lives in Cawsand, Cornwall, said: “I feel terribly let down by the government. I feel like the victim of a witch hunt.” He’s surely not alone in that sentiment.
Experts say a new Historical Investigations Unit could take three years to set up, run for a decade and cost £300million. Meanwhile, 200plus IRA suspects linked to around 295 murder investigations are exempt from fear of prosecution due to “letters of comfort” given to possible terrorists, many who were on the run, by Tony Blair’s government in 1999. Blair justified the letters as crucial to keep the peace accord on track. That might be so. But isn’t it shocking that the same compassion doesn’t extend to our own military. As the terrorists skulked and schemed to blow up the innocent, sometimes children, these soldiers put their lives on the line to try to keep the peace. Where they have committed crimes, they have – rightly – been investigated and charged.
How many more soldiers have to take their own lives before these unjust “show trials” are shelved?
They did their duty by the country: the Government has to now do its duty by them.