Report on Bloody Sunday ‘shocked’ Cameron

FORMER PRIME Minister David Cameron said he felt huge responsibility when delivering his apology for Bloody Sunday to the House of Commons, and said the Saville report into the shootings was “one the most shocking things” he had ever read.

This weekend sees the 50th anniversary of one of the darkest days in Northern Ireland’s history, when British soldiers shot dead 13 civil rights protestors in the Bogside area of Londonderry.

Another man shot by paratroopers on January 30 1972 died four months later. While many consider him the 14th victim, his death was attributed to an inoperable brain tumour.

After Lord Saville produced a report in 2010 which stated that none of the casualties were posing a threat or doing anything that would justify their shooting, Mr Cameron apologised in the House of Commons, saying that the killings were “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

Speaking about the events of that 2010 day, he told the BBC Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme: “What I was feeling was what a huge responsibility it was to try and get this right, because the families affected, people in Northern Ireland had been waiting for this for so long.

“Not just waiting for the report, but waiting for a sense of justice and recognition so I knew it was a huge responsibility.

“I remember my office being crowded with people all wanting to talk about how we should respond and I just wanted to chuck them all out and read the whole of the summary on my own with no interference so I can really see what Saville is saying.

“And it was one of the most shocking things I have ever read.”

Mr Cameron continued: “I knew there would be thousands

of people listening in Derry wanting to know what Saville had said.

“Ultimately I had come to the conclusion that it needed to be a very clear and frank apology and explanation, and don’t try and qualify it in any way,” he said.

Mr Cameron said he was “very moved” when he saw the scenes in Derry of people welcoming his speech.

Lord Saville said the question of prosecutions for what happened at Bloody Sunday in 1972 remains “difficult”.

He told the programme: “I can understand completely the feeling of the families of those who died that they want to see justice done, that is a perfectly reasonable position to take up.

“On the other hand, decades and decades have gone by and it can be said that it is really rather unfair to soldiers to prosecute

them after such a long time has gone by.”