Judges quash PPS decision not to prosecute Soldier F

Senior judges indicated that the PPS should re-think its decision not to put Soldier F on trial for two of the killings in Londonderry 50 years ago.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said: “This is a rare occasion where we consider the decision should be quashed and reconsidered.”

But the court dismissed separate challenges to the PPS’ decisions not to prosecute other Army veterans in connection with six deaths.

Dame Siobhan said that a top prosecutor had “formed a permissible view that there is not a reasonable prospect of the evidence being admitted, and in the absence of that evidence there is insufficient other evidence for a reasonable prospect of conviction”.

Thirteen people were killed when members of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators on January 30, 1972.

Another of those wounded died later.

In 2010 the Saville Inquiry established the innocence of all of those who died.

In July last year the PPS announced it was discontinuing charges against Soldier F for the murders of William McKinney, 26, and James Wray, 22, plus at least five counts of attempted murder.

The case against him was reviewed following the collapse of separate criminal proceedings against two other military veterans for Troubles-era offences, and it was concluded that the test for prosecution was no longer met.

The PPS was also challenged over not charging former paratroopers with the murders of Mr McKinney, Jackie Duddy, 17, Michael Kelly, 17, John Young, 17, Michael McDaid, 20, and 41-year-old father-of-six Bernard McGuigan.

At the time of the shootings the Royal Military Police (RMP) took statements from soldiers who opened fire, with further accounts prepared for the original tribunal chaired by Lord Widgery in 1972.

Judges were also told that the paratroopers interviewed were compelled to give statements in violation of their right to protection from self-incrimination.

Their accounts to RMP officers were involuntary and legally inadmissible as evidence, it was contended.

Delivering judgment, Dame Siobhan held that the decision not to prosecute various soldiers for the deaths of Mr McKinney, Mr Duddy, Mr Kelly, Mr Young, Mr McDaid, 20, and Mr McGuigan was legally sound.

However, the court reached a different conclusion regarding Soldier F.

Prosecution had been recommended based on a reasonable prospect that statements from other soldiers would be admitted at trial, Dame Siobhan pointed out.

She stated: “Overall, we do not consider that the rationale for the change of mind which we have set out above is sustainable. In our view it strays too far away from the original merits-based assessment of the PPS, in circumstances where, in fact, little – if anything – of direct relevance to the Soldier F prosecution has changed.”

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