Accused veteran Dennis Hutchings: ‘Keep your amnesty – I want my day in court’

Reacting to news of a proposed amnesty for all Troubles-related offences, Dennis Hutchings said a court hearing is now the only way to clear his name.

“I don’t want an amnesty,” he said.

“As far as I’m concerned, in my case I’ve done nothing wrong and I want to go to court and get cleared and, if I have anything to do with it, it will proceed. I want my day in court,” the 80-year-old former soldier told the News Letter.

While serving with the Life Guards, Mr Hutchings fired shots during an incident in which 27-year-old John Pat Cunningham was fatally wounded as he ran away from the army patrol near Benburb.

Mr Hutchings, from Cawsand in Cornwall, has always maintained he fired warning shots in the air only, and that another member of the patrol must have fire the fatal shot.

Describing the amnesty decision as “politically motivated,” Mr Hutchings said it the latest development in a “one-sided” peace process that has served former paramilitaries well.

“All the terrorists have got their amnesty already. The terrorists have already got their [on the run] letters or their pardons,” he said.

“Since 1998 it has been all one-sided. The whole thing is a load of political nonsense.

“They have dragged me over the coals, me and my family, for the last six years. If you include when I first got the call from the HET (Historical Enquiries) team then it’s eight and a half years.

“The day when the law was separate from politics is long gone. The law used to be independent but it isn’t anymore.”

According to Mr Hutchings’ legal representatives, McCue & Partners, military veterans who served in NI are up to 54 times more likely than republican paramilitaries to be prosecuted for alleged offences that pre-date the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

In May this year, two former paratroopers accused of the murder of Official IRA leader Joe McCann in 1972 were formally acquitted after prosecutors offered no further evidence at Belfast Crown Court.

The veterans’ trial collapsed after the PPS confirmed it would not appeal against a decision by Mr Justice O’Hara to exclude statements given by the ex-soldiers about the shooting.

Earlier this month, a soldier charged with murdering William McKinney and James Wray in Londonderry, on what became known as Bloody Sunday, was due to a have all charges formally dismissed after the PPS decided his original statement was no longer admissible evidence.

However, leave has now been granted for a judicial review of the PPS decision not to proceed with the prosecution against ‘Soldier F’.

Another former member of the Parachute Regiment, who was charged with the murder of 15-year-old Daniel Hegarty on Bloody Sunday, has also had the charges withdrawn.

Commenting on the prospect of his own trial being halted if Parliament approves the new legislation, Mr Hutchings said: “I’ve got a date for the trial which is October 4, and I have already instructed my barrister – who suggested an adjournment while this bill is going through – that I do not want an adjournment.

“I do fully understand [bereaved] families wanting an answer, that’s fine, but the big difference here is that if the families in England – including the Birmingham bombings and Manchester bombing families – then they have got to pay for it.

“Whereas in Northern Ireland it’s all done on legal aid. I can understand people wanting answers, and they should get answers, but the whole thing is politically motivated.”

Mr Hutchings also said he has no further information which would help bring closure for Mr Cunningham’s family.

“Everything is in the public domain. The family are fully aware what happened that day. They have been in court every day that I’ve appeared in court, and they know exactly what it was all about,” he said.

Mr Hutchings added: “Ninety nine point nine percent of military veterans and service personnel, and I include the people in the RUC, have never asked for a change in the laws.

“If there is new evidence, even after 25 years or whatever, then it should be looked at independently.”

READ: Dennis Hutchings trial: new eye-witness claims ex-soldier is innocent

READ: Dennis Hutchings loses High Court challenge over discrimination against veterans claim

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