Hyde Park IRA victims bring fight for justice to Westminster

Relatives of the IRA Hyde Park bombing victims will converge on Parliament today to launch their campaign to bring the chief suspect to court '“ and to ensure that no terrorist is 'ever allowed to act with impunity in the UK again'.
Dead horses and wrecked cars after the Hyde Park bomb in 1982Dead horses and wrecked cars after the Hyde Park bomb in 1982
Dead horses and wrecked cars after the Hyde Park bomb in 1982

Eleven soldiers were killed in London in July 1982 when the IRA detonated bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park. Seven Household Cavalry horses also died.

The chief suspect for Hyde Park, John Downey, was arrested in 2013 but walked free from court after it was revealed he had an on-the-run comfort letter from government, stating he was not wanted for terrorism.

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Relatives of the victims have since been turned down for legal aid in a bid to bring a private action against Downey, so now they are launching their own fund-raising drive.

Today they will gather with MPs at Parliament to lay a wreath at the scene of the terror attack last month which saw Khalid Masood kill three people with his car, before fatally stabbing a police officer.

Mark Tipper, whose brother Trooper Simon Tipper was killed at Hyde Park, says there is a huge disparity between the government’s commentary after the Masood attack and its lack of support for their campaign.

“I wrote to David Cameron when he was prime minister, but he ignored us,” he said. “We have written to the prime minister, Theresa May, but she has said she cannot intervene. All the politicians talk a good game, of being tough on terrorists, of bringing them to justice, of never forgetting. But that is all it is, meaningless talk and mealy-mouthed words that when push comes to shove, are hollow.”

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His lawyer, Matthew Jury of McCue and Partners, which spearheaded the Omagh bomb civil action, said the government must consider what signal it is sending out.

“If the government fails to give the Hyde Park victims the support they need, then it goes to show the promises they make today’s terror victims are nothing but hollow,” he told the News Letter.

“Where will the victims of Mumbai, Tunisia or Paris be in 30 years time? Unless HM government does more and takes its responsibilities to victims more seriously, the risk is they will be where the Hyde Park families are now: without support, without justice and having to resort to begging the British public for help.

“Victims seeking to bring terrorists to trial are given no support from the UK government when the state fails or cannot do so itself. This imbalance, injustice and victimisation must end, while the state continues to pay for endless inquiries, inquests and court hearings against UK veterans of our armed forces and security services.”

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UUP MP Danny Kinahan was best man for one of the soldiers killed in Hyde Park, Lt Anthony Daly.

“With the route of criminal prosecution closed, the families have since tried to bring a civil case, and unbelievably have been denied legal aid on two occasions,” he said. “It is in the face of this injustice that I am urging people to donate to the Hyde Park Justice Campaign to raise the legal fees so that John Downey can be held to account in a court of law.”

• Readers can donate to the campaign online at www.crowdjustice.org/case/hyde-park-justice

Alternatively, cheques can be posted to: Hyde Park Justice Campaign, McCue and Partners, 158 Buckinghamn Palace Road, 4th Floor, London SW1W 9TR.