Ex-Guardsman, 75, is quizzed 25 times over 1974 Ulster shooting
‘Interrogated like a war criminal’
A DYING Army veteran was interrogated 25 times by police investigating the killing of an IRA suspect more than 40 years ago.
Great-grandfather Dennis Hutchings, 75, was arrested and detained for a total of 84 hours and 30 minutes. Over the three-and-a-half days, he was questioned on 25 separate occasions by detectives investigating the shooting of John-Pat Cunningham, 27, in Northern Ireland in 1974. On one day alone, Mr Hutchings was questioned 11 times. The retired warrant officer was finally charged with attempting to murder him.
Despite no new evidence, no living witnesses, and the loss of key forensic evidence, Mr Hutchings now faces jail if convicted.
Yesterday the ex-soldier won a legal battle when a judge at Belfast High Court agreed to let him challenge a decision that he should face a judge-only trial. His legal team are fighting for his case to be heard before a jury.
Last night Mr Hutchings – who last year said he had been ‘thrown to the wolves’ over the fatal shooting – spoke of his anger at being interviewed for three-and-a-half days over the shooting.
He had been investigated and cleared of the Troubles killing at the time. He then assisted Northern Ireland’s Historical Enquiries Team (HET), which reviewed the case in 2011, and was told by investigators that the matter was closed.
But after files were re-examined by a legacy unit set up by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) he was arrested at his home in Cornwall in April 2015 and taken to Northern Ireland.
Mr Hutchings – who has kidney failure and has been given two years to live – said: ‘I couldn’t understand why the questioning went on for so long. It was like being interrogated as a war criminal.
‘The case had already been gone over twice and I was cleared. So it was a terrible shock to be dragged to Northern Ireland to be interviewed like a common criminal.’
Mr Hutchings was part of a military unit which came across Mr Cuntwo ningham, whom they believed was an armed IRA suspect, near the village of Benburb, County Armagh.
As Mr Cunningham ran away across a field, Mr Hutchings was one of two soldiers – the other now dead – who opened fire, killing him. It later emerged that he was innocent and had a mental age of between six and ten.
It has not been established who fired the fatal shot. Mr Hutchings says he was acting lawfully and that the victim was acting suspiciously, was thought to be hiding a weapon and ignored an order to stop.
In March, a judge in Armagh said there was ‘ample evidence’ from which a jury could conclude that Mr Hutchings fired three shots at Mr Cunningham but not enough to show he intended to kill him.
He said the veteran, who served 26 years in the Life Guards, would go on trial for attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to him. But months later Mr Hutchings was told he would stand trial for attempted murder – even though the earlier court ruled the charge should be dropped because of ‘insufficient evidence’.
Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions Barra McGrory reinstated the charge. Mr Hutchings’s trial is expected to take place later this year.
Up to 1,000 retired troops are being investigated as suspects over actions they took decades ago at the height of the IRA’s terror campaign, with growing concerns of a ‘witch-hunt’.
Earlier this year a report by the Commons’ defence select committee said that British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland have been left in a ‘morally indefensible limbo’ by the PSNI investigation.
In a damning paper, the crossparty panel warned that if a line was not drawn ‘urgently’ under the witch-hunt it would ‘grind on for many years’.
Thousands of veterans are planning to march on Westminster next Saturday in protest at the ‘witchhunt’ against troops who served during the Troubles.
The demonstration, organised by the Justice For Northern Ireland Veterans campaign group, wants the Government to stop new investigations into historical killings in Northern Ireland.