Up to 200 ex-soldiers and police face Troubles probe
UP TO 200 former British security forces personnel have been investigated for alleged crimes during the Troubles, it emerged last night.
The Ministry of Defence has estimated there are between 150 and 200 former soldiers and police officers under investigation for alleged historical offences.
The figures have emerged following pressure from politicians and thousands of current and former service personnel who say the prosecutions are a witch-hunt against those who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
There are at least three prosecutions against British soldiers currently under way, including one against a former Parachute Regiment soldier known only as Soldier F, who is due to face murder charges over his role in Bloody Sunday in 1972.
Another veteran, known as Soldier B, is in his seventies and said to be unwell but faces prosecution for allegedly shooting dead 15-year-old Daniel Hegarty and wounding his cousin Christopher, in Londonderry in 1972.
The decision, by Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service, reversed three previous decisions not to prosecute Soldier B, made in 1973, 2008 and 2016.
The figures, reported by the Guardian, will reignite fears of a witch-hunt which would see British military veterans, now in their sixties and seventies, jailed for their roles in violent clashes almost 50 years ago.
Last year, the Hegarty family won the right to seek the prosecution of Soldier B again after the High Court quashed the PPS’s 2016 decision not to bring criminal charges, ruling it was based on ‘irredeemably flawed’ reasoning. The Government has said Soldier B will be offered ‘full legal support’, although the decision to prosecute another soldier over Troubles violence has sparked fury among ex- servicemen. One former paratrooper who served with Soldier B said: ‘What makes the blood boil is that there is nothing even-handed about this or the Bloody Sunday charges because those from the other side who killed soldiers and civilians are not being pursued with the same determination.’
A UK government spokesman told the Guardian: ‘The system to investigate the past needs to change to provide better outcomes for victims and survivors of the Troubles... We have always said that we will not introduce amnesties or immunities from prosecution in Northern Ireland.
‘The MoD is currently looking at what more can be done to provide further legal protection to service personnel and veterans, including considering legislation.’
‘There will be no amnesties’