‘Betrayal’ of Bloody Sunday veteran
Decorated ex-sergeant breaks silence on police investigation for attempted murder
Chief Reporter A NORTHERN IRELAND veteran has accused the Government of “scandalous betrayal” after coming under police investigation for the attempted murder of two protesters injured by flying debris on Bloody Sunday.
The 76-year-old former paratrooper, who can be identified only as Sergeant O, was awarded the Military Medal by the Queen for bravery on the same tour in 1972 but could now face jail.
Sergeant O, partially paralysed after suffering a stroke, decided to break his silence in anger at remaining under criminal investigation. He faces becoming the first soldier to be charged over Bloody Sunday.
Police interviewed Sergeant O under caution in April 2016 for two counts of attempted murder. He has been in limbo ever since.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “It’s completely ludicrous. Why am I still being investigated after all these years? I am sickened. The Government has mishandled this so badly. I feel very badly betrayed. It is absolutely scandalous.”
Sergeant O’s plight reignites the row over the treatment of British Troubles veterans. Ministers were forced to close criminal inquiries into Iraq veterans after a previous public outcry.
Senior military figures have urged Theresa May to introduce a statute of limitations for Armed Forces personnel to prevent ex-servicemen being hauled through the courts.
A proposed statute of limitations was dropped from a consultation document into legacy killings by the Northern Ireland Office. The amnesty was blocked by both the DUP, which props up Mrs May’s government, and by Sinn Fein. The DUP fears a time limit could be used to prevent IRA terror suspects, many of whom already have so-called comfort letters reassuring them they were not wanted, from being prosecuted in the future.
Sergeant O is one of hundreds of veterans who face criminal investigations for alleged unlawful killings during The Troubles. His wife died a few months ago, and he believes the stress of his facing a prosecution for attempted murder, which can carry a life sentence, may have contributed to her death. Sergeant O is among 18 soldiers facing possible charges over Bloody Sunday, a shooting during a civil rights rally in Londonderry on Jan 30 1972, that led to the deaths of 14 people.
Police began a criminal inquiry in 2012 and completed interviews with soldiers in 2016. A £200 million 12-year inquiry led by Lord Saville concluded in 2010 that paratroopers had “lost control”, causing the deaths.
Sergeant O, a grandfather, is accused by police of injuring two men who were hit by flying debris. He was interviewed under caution on April 13 2016 at a police station close to his home in southern England. He is yet to hear if he will be charged.
One of the men Sergeant O is accused of attempting to murder was Pius Mccarron, 30, who suffered a gash to the head caused by a piece of cladding that had fallen from a block of flats. Mr Mccarron, who had a brain
‘How can I be charged with these shootings when all I’m being accused of is knocking off concrete?’
haemorrhage 18 months later, died in 2004. His family insist he was a victim of the Bloody Sunday shootings.
Sergeant O’s second alleged victim, Patrick Mcdaid, 24, suffered a “glancing” wound to his back, from debris.
Sergeant O said: “I thought during the interview ‘how can I be charged with these shootings when all I’m being accused of is knocking off concrete’?”
More than 1,100 unsolved deaths are expected to be re-examined by the Historical Investigations Unit, a branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Critics of the unit believe military veterans are more likely to face charges because the Ministry of Defence keeps records, while the paramilitary organisations on both sides did not. Under the Good Friday Agreement, terror suspects face a maximum two years in jail if convicted but no such fixed sentence exists for military
veterans, who can be jailed for life. More than 150 IRA terror suspects received so-called comfort letters, effectively giving them an amnesty not afforded British troops. They include John Downey, 66, who was charged with the 1982 Hyde Park bombing and who walked free from court after his trial in 2014 collapsed when existence of the letter emerged.
Sergeant O said: “It’s completely unfair that terror suspects got comfort letters. The suspect accused of the Hyde Park bombing is walking down the street and there is nothing that can be done to him because he got a letter.”
Philip Barden, Sergeant O’s lawyer, said: “Sergeant O was interviewed under caution not for shooting at gunmen, but for allegedly attempting to murder two civilians who may have been injured having been hit by flying masonry. This does not provide a legitimate basis to put an allegation of attempted murder, as the law requires the prosecution to prove there was an intention to unlawfully kill. You don’t intend to unlawfully kill by shooting into a wall.
“He has gone through a 20-year legal process and remains waiting to know if he will be charged. He is but one of an increasing number of veterans caught up in the legal process in Northern Ireland which is destroying their lives and needs to be brought to an end.”
Johnny Mercer, a Conservative MP and former Army captain who led a parliamentary inquiry into historic allegations against troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, said: “This is so ridiculous I cannot fathom why ministers do not directly intervene in this process.
“I am genuinely ashamed to be in the Party of Government whilst this continues. A bit of concrete in the back from 46 years ago? I cannot fathom what this man and his family are going through and I can only assure him that the parliamentary party, where the power really lies in Parliament, is considering all options to halt this process.”
Writing in today’s Telegraph, Tim Collins, the colonel known for his eve of battle speech in Iraq in 2003, accused the Government of preferring “to do deals to appease terrorists and prosecute its own servicemen”.
He urged Northern Ireland veterans to use human rights laws and write to ministers demanding to know if they are under investigation and why.
The PSNI said 17 former soldiers had been interviewed under caution in connection with Bloody Sunday and files passed to the Public Prosecution Service. A PPS spokesman said: “The volume of material and complexity of legal issues involved have made it difficult to provide a definitive time frame for decision.”
He added: “Prosecutors are considering all offences which might be proven on the available evidence, in strict accordance with the PPS Code.”