Ex-Soldiers Win Bloody Sunday Court Fight

Former paratroopers facing questioning over Bloody Sunday have won their High Court battle against being detained and transferred to Northern Ireland for interview by police.

The ex-soldiers, who cannot be named, applied for a judicial review against the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), who wants them to be taken back there as part of an investigation into whether criminal charges were committed by soldiers who used lethal force.

The case centred on the way the PSNI is conducting its investigation into the deaths of 14 civil rights demonstrators in Londonderry in 1972, a day that has become known as Bloody Sunday.

Thirteen people were killed by members of the Parachute Regiment in Derry's Bogside on the day of the incident, while another victim of the shootings died in hospital four months later.

The High Court granted the seven men an order prohibiting the PSNI from arresting them on their undertaking "that they will attend for an interview under caution ... to be carried out by the PSNI at a police station in England or Wales, or other acceptable location".

Lawyers for the former paratroopers, who live in England and gave evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry from the British mainland, argued there was a real danger their lives would unnecessarily be put at risk if they were transferred for interview.

Arresting and transferring them "for what can only be described as administrative convenience" would be "unlawful, irrational and disproportionate", James Lewis QC said at a one-day hearing in November.

He said the men were willing to be questioned on the mainland but intended to make "no comment".

In their ruling, Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, Mr Justice Openshaw and Mrs Justice Carr said they had "unhesitatingly concluded" that the reasons advanced for the arrest and transfer of the men "did not provide reasonable grounds" for the decision.

The judges said each of the men - referred to as B, N, O, Q, R, U and V - had co-operated with all of the previous proceedings and investigations at the time and in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Sunday.

The documents necessary for the new investigations were held in electronic form and could be put to the men at interview in England and Wales, they added.

The PSNI's practice of putting to witnesses original relevant documents was "outmoded and cannot form any justification for an arrest", the judges went on to say.

The men had made it clear they would undertake to the court to attend interviews - "an obligation which will be enforced by this court".

The judges said the chance of post-interview bail conditions being imposed did not justify the need for an arrest now.

They ruled: "If interviewed in Northern Ireland they would not be able to return to their homes during the interview period, but would have to be detained for their own safety in conditions of close custody.

"Even if so detained, there would remain a risk to their safety."

Relatives of the victims expressed anger and frustration, and vowed to continue their fight for justice.

Kate Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was killed, said: "We have fought for a very long time and we will continue to fight. If it takes us to go to England then so be it."

The ruling follows the arrest of a former colleague of the men in Northern Ireland - the first ex-soldier detained. The 66-year-old was held in Co Antrim and later released on police bail.

The PSNI launched a murder probe in 2012, which followed the findings of a British Government-commissioned inquiry.

Lord Saville's report found none of the victims posed a threat to soldiers when they were shot.