Bloody Sunday Soldier F verdict: Labour approach to Northern Ireland Troubles legacy risks trials with ‘no prospect of resolution’
Labour’s approach to Northern Ireland legacy needs a rethink, the Conservatives have said after Soldier F was found not guilty of committing two murders and five attempted murders on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972.
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Alex Burghart told the Commons that the fresh Northern Ireland Troubles Bill risked opening cases with “no prospect of resolution but only of ongoing legal process”.
The former paratrooper known as Soldier F was accused of the murders of James Wray and William McKinney on Bloody Sunday, when 13 people were killed when members of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on a civil rights demonstration.
Judge Patrick Lynch at Belfast Crown Court said last month that the “evidence presented by the Crown falls well short” of being “convincing and manifestly reliable” enough to secure a conviction.
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said on Monday the Government “remains committed to establishing a legacy process which can provide answers for families who are still seeking to find out what happened to their loved ones”.
Mr Burghart said Judge Lynch’s finding “goes to the heart” of what the Conservatives tried to do when they passed the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023.
“As time goes by, it becomes vanishingly difficult to obtain convictions,” he told MPs.
“The 1998 agreement was 27 years ago. The ceasefire’s 31 years ago.
“And this, of course, has implications for the Government’s Troubles Bill, which will reopen many such cases, cases where there is no prospect of resolution but only of ongoing legal process, with almost no possibility of bringing terrorists to court, but which, ultimately, leave open the likelihood of ever more vexatious complaints against our veterans.”
Mr Burghart quoted from a letter signed by seven individuals, published in the Financial Times over the weekend.
“‘Legacy has become an industry that keeps wounds open while rewriting history’,” he said.
Mr Burghart added: “So, we ask the Secretary of State to think again.”
Mr Benn replied: “He is absolutely right when he says that with the passage of time – I think the phrase he used was – ‘it is vanishingly difficult to obtain convictions’.
“And most of the families, not all, but most of the families that I have met who lost loved ones recognise that fact.
“But he also has to acknowledge that the Legacy Act with its offer of immunity in return for statements that the Legacy Commission regarded as truthful and credible, which could have given immunity to terrorists, and that is why the immunity that the last government sought to put in place was rejected by victims and survivors groups in Northern Ireland was opposed by all of the political parties in Northern Ireland, and was found by the courts to be incompatible with our human rights obligations.”
The Cabinet minister had earlier said: “We will also always remember the dangers faced by our brave soldiers, police and others we who served during the time of Operation Banner and tried to keep people safe, while always remembering, especially at this time of year, the ultimate sacrifice made by those who gave their lives in doing so.”
He told MPs: “I and the Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey) have, of course. noted the judgment, but I do not think it appropriate to be drawn on the particulars of these independent legal proceedings.
“The House will recognise that it was also a difficult day for the families of the 13 people shot dead on Bloody Sunday in circumstances that the former prime minister Lord (David) Cameron described as – and I quote – ‘unjustified and unjustifiable’.”
Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service makes decisions “independently in light of the individual facts and circumstances”, Mr Benn continued.
He added that the Ministry of Defence “rightly” provided Soldier F with “legal and pastoral support”.
Conservative former minister Sir David Davis said that nothing justified the “persecution of innocent” veterans, and that another trial of a former soldier – Soldier B – is set to start soon.
He said: “In two weeks’ time, there’ll be another case of another soldier from 53 years ago, which has already been reviewed for four years by the DPP and ruled as no case to answer, despite that which has no evidence whatsoever since then, that man is being put through misery and persecution now, a 78-year-old man sitting in anxiety in his home, waiting for prosecution for a case that should never be brought.”
Sir David branded it an “injustice” and said the Government’s legislation would lead to similar cases.
Mr Benn insisted that the legislation “will make no change at all” to the basis on which decisions about any potential prosecutions are made.
He said: “Decisions about prosecutions are taken independently by prosecutors, and it is not for us to gainsay the decisions that those prosecutors take.”
Labour previously pledged to replace and repeal the Legacy Act introduced by the Conservatives, which halted scores of civil cases and inquests into Troubles deaths and also included a contentious conditional offer of immunity for the perpetrators of Troubles crimes in exchange for co-operation with a truth recovery body.
The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill will axe aspects of the 2023 Act, including lifting the prohibition on Troubles-related inquests on conflict-linked deaths in limited cases.