IRA killers behind deaths of 500 UK soldiers escaped justice despite veterans facing ‘witch hunt’

The terrorists behind the killings of more than 500 British soldiers during the Troubles have escaped justice, an analysis of historic murders shows, fueling anger over the continued pursuit of veterans through the courts.

A trawl of reported deaths of troops both in Northern Ireland and on the mainland shows that authorities failed to catch or else prosecute the killers in the vast majority of cases.

In total, according to The Telegraph’s analysis, the murders of 516 soldiers went unpunished. Police and prosecutors secured convictions in just 71 cases, while in an additional five killings, the convictions were subsequently overturned on appeal.

Veterans have repeatedly complained that they are being unfairly pursued through the courts for deaths as long as half a century ago, while terrorist suspects are no longer under scrutiny. Lawyers and politicians have argued that soldiers are currently disproportionately much more likely to face prosecution, not least because the Ministry of Defence (MoD) kept paperwork for all shootings committed by troops sent to Northern Ireland to keep the peace.

Last week, two soldiers - known only as Soldier A and Soldier C - walked free from court after they were acquitted of the murder of Joe McCann, an Official IRA commander, who was shot and killed in 1971. Theirs was the first so-called ‘legacy’ trial, although others are in the pipeline.

The Government announced on Tuesday in the Queen’s Speech its intention to introduce legislation to restrict future prosecutions of troops through some form of truth and reconciliation process that would also prevent paramilitaries - both loyalist and republican - from being taken to court.

Critics are sceptical that the Northern Ireland office and the MoD will be able to force through legislation without agreement from Sinn Fein and Ulster unionists.

The Telegraph began its research into the deaths of 587 soldiers after Lieutenant Colonel Frank Stewart, 87, wrote to the newspaper to say “please remember” his comrade Staff Sergeant Malcolm Banks, a Royal Engineer, who was shot dead by an Official IRA sniper in 1972.

The murder, he said, had taken place two minutes before a ceasefire and conseuqently the death of the father-of-two, who was 29, was never investigated. Banks, he pointed out, was a Catholic.

Lt Col Stewart said Thursday: “I was there. I remember it well. He died at the scene. There was no investigation and nobody was ever brought to justice. That is what is so stupid about all this. It is ridiculous they are prosecuting soldiers now. There are bad cases everywhere.”

Banks and his comrades had been lured into a trap. They had driven out in a Land Rover to investigate a bomb blast and a sniper had shot at the car, the bullet penetrating the vehicle's exterior and hitting Banks in the back.

Atrocities that have gone unpunished include the deaths of 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint in County Down in 1979. It was the deadliest attack on British troops during the Troubles. Nobody was ever charged, let alone convicted of the attack launched by the IRA.

Attacks on the mainland by the IRA have also failed to secure convictions. John Downey, an IRA commander, walked free from court after being charged with the murder of four soldiers when a bomb was exploded in Hyde Park in London in 1982.

It emerged Downey had received a so-called “comfort letter” in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, assuring him he was not a suspect in the atrocity.

No one has ever been convicted of the murder of seven bandsmen of the Royal green jackets killed when a bomb went off on the same day in Regent’s Park.

Research by lawyers acting for some of the veterans claims former soldiers are now 54 times more likely to face prosecution in Northern ireland than republican paramilitaries.

Matthew Jury, whose clients include Dennis Hutchings, an 80-year-old veteran due to go on trial later this year for attempted murder over the death of an unarmed man with learning difficulties, said: “The veterans aren’t trying to evade justice. All they want is impartial and equal treatment. Surely that’s the least we owe them.”

His examination of the 3,720 people killed during the Troubles shows 90 per cent of the deaths were committed by paramilitaries on both sides, of which about 60 per cent were by republican sympathisers.

About 10 per cent - at 361 - were “state killings” by either Army or police. But he alleges that since 2007, only seven republicans have been prosecuted. In the same period, six ex-soldiers have faced prosecution.

That makes British troops at least six times more likely to be prosecuted - except that most state killings were lawful, and the real figure is about 54 times more likely.

Mr Hutchings said: “It is an absolute bloody disgrace. Soldiers like me are being prosecuted in the courts but there has never been any justice for hundreds of murdered troops.”

Johnny Mercer, a former Army captain sacked earlier this month as veterans minister after he protested against the ongoing prosecutions of troops, said the failure to secure convictions for the deaths of more than 500 soldiers showed the need for legislation.

Mr Mercer has complained that the Government has been too slow to bring in measures to protect troops and is sceptical it will be able to introduce new legislation under current ministerial leadership.

Mr Mercer said: “All I have ever asked for is balance in this process to dealing with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past. As these figures will show you, there is no balance whatsoever, and I’m afraid I will relentlessly defend the vast majority of British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland with exceptional bravery, professionalism, courage and duty.”

Mr Mercer added: “I will not cut these men and women adrift – our veterans deserve a nation that is proud of them and unwilling to accept attempts to sully their role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.”

Relatives of victims of British military killings have complained that investigations carried out at the time were inadequate and that fresh inquiries were needed to prevent British troops evading justice.

An inquest this week into the deaths of 10 people in Ballymurphy in Belfast at the hands of the Parachute regiment in 1971 ruled they were unlawful and that the victims were “entirely innocent”.

The Government has since apologised.

Among the victims was a Cathloic priest attending to a wounded man, and a mother-of-eight. There is pressure for at least one of the soldiers to be charged with murder.