Bloody Sunday accused ‘should not be imprisoned’

Those blamed for the events of Bloody Sunday should not face criminal proceedings, veteran civil rights lawyer Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC said today.

As the 30th anniversary of the Army killings of 13 Catholics in Derry nears, he claimed naming-and-shaming those responsible for their role in the tragic events ought to be enough.

Sir Louis, who is one of the barristers involved in the huge Saville Inquiry re-examining the shootings, also made the point that many of those involved on the day were now dead anyway.

Asked if those culpable in Bloody Sunday should be tried and imprisoned as a result of the inquiry, he said: ‘‘I’m expressing a personal view. I would have thought not.

‘‘I would have thought the fact that anybody who is blamed for what happened on Bloody Sunday, over the fact that their blame is disclosed in the public report ought to suffice.

‘‘I do not think that it would be sensible and wise to take proceedings against anybody for what happened.

‘‘And of course a lot of the people who were involved in the events aren’t even alive today.’’

Sir Louis is part of the legal team representing the long-defunct Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) before the Tribunal.

NICRA was criticised in the original Widgery Inquiry of 1972 for having brought large numbers of people on to the streets on January 30 of that year for an anti-internment march, an event which ended with Paratroopers entering Derry’s Bogside in the demonstrators’ wake and opening fire.

The current inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 and has been sitting in public in Derry’s Guildhall since March 2000.

It is to move to an as yet undecided venue in Great Britain later this year to hear the evidence of ex-soldiers, who feared returning to Derry would place their lives in danger.

The new probe was set up as part of the peace process but Sir Louis said its eventual impact on the process was ‘‘a political judgement’’.

‘‘It is an important element of the peace process. Of course what will impact on the peace process by the time Lord Saville and his colleagues report will be very different.

‘‘It may be that the importance of the inquiry was having the inquiry rather than the end result,’’ he said