No justification for shootings, states Saville Report
The Bloody Sunday shooting in Derry was “unjustified”, the Saville Report has concluded after a 38-year campaign for justice.
The 5,000-page report published this week after a 12-year inquiry exonerated the victims of the tragedy, concluding some of the soldiers had lied to the inquiry. There is now a possibility that legal action may be brought against the former soldiers, many of whom are now in their 60s.
Lord Saville concluded that none of the 14 civilians killed was carrying a gun, no warnings were given, and the troops were the first to open fire.
The civilians were shot dead during a civil rights march in Derry on 30 January 1972. Lord Saville, a Supreme Court judge, found there was no justification for the shooting. The first report into the shootings, by Lord Widgery in 1972, accused the marchers of firing weapons, and has since been discredited.
Prime Minister David Cameron issued a public apology on behalf of the British state. “What happened was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong,” he said.
The Northern Ireland director of public prosecutions, Sir Alasdair Fraser QC, is considering whether prosecutions for murder, perjury or perverting the course of justice could arise from the report.
Kingsley Napley partner Stephen Pollard, who represents some of the soldiers involved, said in an interview with the BBC, that “Saville’s conclusions fly in the face of the evidence”.
“He cherry-picked the evidence. Other than two instances, how does he know whose bullets killed the men? The evidence can be cut whichever way you want. The situation was confused.
“We’ve accepted that none of those who were killed or injured did anything to warrant their shooting. We accepted that right at the beginning of the report. What was at issue at the beginning of the investigation is the threat that the soldiers were facing.”
Pollard said that, after 12 years and £191m, Lord Saville “was under pressure” to “give very clear findings”.
