British Army escapes punishment for Bloody Sunday lies

Families of Bloody Sunday victims have said a decision not to prosecute 15 former British soldiers over perjury is “a continuation of the injustice that was perpetrated on Bloody Sunday.”

The families were responding to a decision by Crown prosecutors that 15 British former soldiers would not be held accountable for lying to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

Thirteen people were killed when British paratroopers opened fire on a crowd taking part in a civil rights march in Derry on January 30 1972. A 14th victim, John Johnston, died later as a result of his injuries.

Despite the deceptions of the British Army, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, which reported in 2010, overturned an earlier whitewash and found there was no justification for shooting any of those killed or wounded.

John Kelly, whose 17-year-old brother Michael was shot dead on Bloody Sunday, accused the British army of “lying its way” through the conflict.

The lawyer for the majority of the Bloody Sunday families, Ciaran Shiels of Madden and Finucane, said the Bloody Sunday families were “very disappointed” at the decision “but they are certainly not fooled by it”.

“Anyone who closely observed the evidence given at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry will know that members of 1 Para, and indeed senior military officers in command positions within the British Army in 1972, both individually and collectively, perverted the course of justice by concealing the criminal behaviour of their colleagues in Support Company of 1 Para, thereby ensuring that they would evade prosecution for their crimes.

“Those who gave dishonest evidence on oath also committed perjury and were clearly outside the scope of the assurance against self incrimination provided by the Attorney General at the outset of the Inquiry, which was designed to facilitate the provision of truthful evidence to the Inquiry to assist that Inquiry to reach its proper findings.

“A major cause for concern arose last week when police informed the families of the persons referred to the PPS for prosecution and not one officer in a position of command on Bloody Sunday, in particular Captain Mike Jackson, featured.

“The families made serious and detailed allegations in relation to Mike Jackson’s conduct on Bloody Sunday. He had personally interviewed those who admitted firing live rounds in the rear of his APC before the Paras had even departed the Bogside and was recalled to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry to explain omissions in his evidence.

“Jackson was the chief architect and puppeteer in relation to the British Army’s cover up on Bloody Sunday, yet a file does not appear to have been submitted in relation to him.

“It is of course regrettable that this decision has been communicated to us only today, some 14 years after the Inquiry’s unequivocal findings, but less than two weeks before the effective enactment date of the morally bankrupt Legacy legislation designed specifically to allow British army veterans to escape justice for its criminal actions in the north of Ireland.

“We will carefully consider the reasons we have received today and do not rule out the prospect of further legal action.”

John Kelly, whose 17 years old brother Michael was murdered on Bloody Sunday said on behalf of the Bloody Sunday families and wounded:

“The families of Bloody Sunday who sit here today disappointed and perplexed by this decision not to prosecute a single soldier for perjury ask themselves rhetorically:

“‘Why is it that the people of Derry cannot forget the events of Bloody Sunday, yet the Parachute Regiment, who caused all of the deaths and injury on that day, apparently cannot recall it?’

“The answer to this question is quite simple but painfully obvious. The British Army lied its way through the conflict in the north. Accountability was never an option.

“And it is clear from the events of Bloody Sunday that killing unarmed civilians and lying about the circumstances of those murders never operated as a bar to individual promotions for soldiers, but in fact helped endear themselves to their superior officers and authorities.

“We consider that today’s ruling by the PPS is an affront to the rule of law and a continuation of the injustice that was perpetrated on Bloody Sunday.”

CAIRNS PROSECUTION

On a more positive note, a notorious loyalist is to be prosecuted with conspiracy to murder two Catholic brothers who were later shot dead in their family home – at least in principle.

In an interview broadcast in 2019, Laurence Maguire said he was involved in a failed attempt to target members of the Cairns family near Bleary, County Down, in 1992.

Brothers Gerard and Rory Cairns were later shot dead by UVF paramilitaries on October 28, 1993.

Maguire was finally questioned by police about the murder plan last year and a decision has now been taken to put Maguire in the dock.

The loyalist has previously claimed targeting information provided to his gang came from former UVF commander Billy Wright, which was supplied to him by Crown force members.

Wright was one of nine loyalists arrested after the 1993 murders and released without charge.

Robin ‘The Jackal’ Jackson, a former leader of the UVF in Mid Ulster, was also arrested. Jackson, a former British soldier, is thought to have worked as a Crown force agent for more than two decades and is suspected of involvement in dozens of murders.

During the documentary interview with the BBC, Maguire told how Jackson put together a plan to kill every male member of the Cairns family in 1992.

He admitted how he and three other men had set off on the murder mission when they received a message over a radio to abort the attack as a helicopter had been spotted.

In October the following year, at which time Maguire was in jail, a UVF gang went to the Cairns family home near Bleary and shot dead Rory and Gerard a short time after they had celebrated their sister’s 11th birthday.

Their father Eamon and another brother escaped death as they were not in the house when the killer gang struck using the same plan as the aborted attack a year earlier.

The double murder was part of a series carried out across Mid Ulster in which collusion is strongly suspected.

Eamon Cairns believes the full extent of collusion has yet to be uncovered.

“Laurence Maguire is part of the tree that needs to be shaken to see what is revealed,” he said.

And he added that loyalists “could only do what they did for as long with the support and knowledge of the British security apparatus”.

Mr Cairns said the BBC documentary “highlighted and exposed the links between loyalist death squads and RUC Special Branch”.

The campaigning father said his family continues to suffer from the loss of Rory and Gerard.

“Their special strength and warmth is sadly missed around our house.

“The things we most think about now is they will not be here to help us in our old age and most painful, they wouldn’t have children to carry on the family name.”

Mr Cairns believes his sons were the victims of an unjust system.

“There never was any equality in our country, the greed and the sectarian bigotry of the British-unionist poisoned in every aspect of normal life,” he said.

Proceedings have been lodged in the High Court and in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg challenging cover-up legislation designed to end this and all such prosecutions, which takes effect just next week, on May 1st.

The family’s lawyer, Fearghal Shiels of Madden and Finucane Solicitors, said Mr Cairns would continue to “pursue every course of action open to him” to secure justice for his sons.

McCANN INQUEST

And in other legacy news, a fresh inquest has been ordered into the death of Official IRA commander Joe McCann in Belfast in 1972, just days before the cut-off date set by the cover-up legislation.

At least 17 ongoing inquests will not be completed by May 1st, and despite efforts to speed up the process, this number is expected to increase.

The Legacy Act will end all conflict-era inquests and place the cases with a so-called ‘Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery’ (ICRIR). The controversial legislation, intended to end investigations into British war crimes, is the subject of multiple challenges in British and international courts.

Joe Mr McCann was shot by British soldiers as he was fled from a police officer who tried to arrest him in the Markets area of Belfast in April 1972.

Mr McCann’s daughter Aine said the family welcomed the inquest decision but “like so many other bereaved families we face the reality that as it stands this inquest will not happen, and we could once again be left with the bitter taste of injustice and unanswered questions.”

Ms McCann said her family remained “steadfast and determined to continue in the fight for truth about what happened to our father and this decision gives us renewed hope that this will one day happen.

“Our family reject any attempt to persuade us that the ICRIR would provide a suitable alternative to a new inquest,” she said. “This is not something our family is willing to accept, and we join the voices of other victims and survivors across the North in stating that we will not engage with it.”

Urgent Appeal