Call for inquiry on Williamson ‘interference’

The Attorney General should investigate whether defence secretary Gavin Williamson has interfered in the judicial process, according to the Bloody Sunday families.

Speaking recently in a BBC interview, Mr Williamson said he was saddened that protection against “spurious prosecutions” would not be given to service personnel in time for proceedings announced yesterday in Londonderry. John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother Michael was killed, said the Attorney General should decide if the Defence Secretary or other politicians had broken the law.

Mr Kelly said: “If they have, they should be charged.

“They cannot attempt to interfere in a judicial process just because they don’t like it or because their voters don’t like it.”

MPS have campaigned for a statute of limitations that would prevent troops from being prosecuted for serving their country, including in Northern Ireland.

Mr Williamson told a BBC Radio 4 podcast: “We need to give protections to service personnel… to ensure we don’t have spurious prosecutions.

“No-one in the armed forces wants to be above the law, but what we did need to do is ensure that they do have the protection so that they don’t feel under threat.

“It’s not just about Northern Ireland, but about Iraq and Afghanistan, conflicts before that and in the future.”

In response to a question about whether that would make a difference to Bloody Sunday, he continued: “Sadly, I don’t think that will come in time.

“I think we have to ask a real question as to Northern Ireland has moved on.

There’s been so much progress.

“We’ve got to look to the future, not at the past.”

Soldier F is to be prosecuted for murder, Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said yesterday.