Public prosecutors in Northern Ireland on Thursday confirmed their decision to prosecute a former British soldier for the murder of Patrick McVeigh, who was shot dead over 50 years ago in May 1972. The soldier, referred to only as Soldier F, is also charged with attempting to murder four others, who were wounded in the same incident.
The Troubles is the name given to a thirty-year period of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998. The violence was both political and religious, with harsh divisions between Protestant unionism and Catholic nationalism. The British Army was deployed as a peacekeeping measure in response to increased violence from the Provisional Irish Republican Army. However, soldiers from the time have faced prosecution decades later on charges of murdering unarmed civilians. Many of these soldiers are now in their senior years and grappling with declining health.
Soldier F, along with three other soldiers, is also facing charges of attempted murder for a second May 1972 shooting incident.
The announcement follows an extended 10-year police investigation. Martin Hardy, assistant director of public prosecutions, stated that all victims and families involved in the investigations were informed of the decision to prosecute. The daughter of Patrick McVeigh told the BBC that her father deserved to have “someone held accountable for his murder.”
Both shootings involved an undercover Army unit called the Military Reaction Force, which operated in Belfast in the early 1970s. The unit operated for 18 months before it was disbanded in 1973. In 2013, allegations were made to local media by former members of the unit that it had been involved in the killing of unarmed civilians, prompting an official police investigation into these claims.
The decision to prosecute comes at a contentious time for legacy crimes in Northern Ireland. Earlier in 2023, the central Westminster government passed legislation that will introduce an amnesty for all future prosecutions relating to crimes committed during the Troubles. As such, after May 1 of this year, no future prosecutions will be possible against either soldiers or civilians for criminal acts during the thirty-year period of violence.
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