>A former British soldier has gone on trial charged in connection with the death of Aidan McAnespie, who was shot dead after walking through a British Army checkpoint close to the Tyrone/Monaghan border to attend a GAA match in 1988.
>David Holden has admitted firing the fatal shot from a machine gun, but claims it was accidental.
>Aidan McAnespie died after one of three high calibre bullets fired from a machine gun at a permanent British army checkpoint ricocheted off the road and hit him in the back.
>The 23-year-old was on his way to attend in a GAA match and had just walked past the checkpoint in the village of Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone on 21 February, 1988.
>Former Grenadier Guardsman David Holden, who was 18 at the time, is charged with manslaughter.
>The 52-year-old has admitted firing the shots, but claims his hands were wet and that his finger slipped off the trigger guard and on to the trigger and fired the machine gun accidentally.
>A prosecution lawyer told Belfast Crown Court this morning that the public prosecution service does not believe his account of what happened is credible.
>Ciaran Murphy QC said nine pounds of pressure was required to fire the machinegun, and that David Holden had told another soldier shortly after the shooting that he had squeezed the trigger.
>Even if the gun had been fired accidentally, he told the court that as a professional soldier trained in the use of weapons, David Holden was guilty of gross negligence manslaughter.
>Members of Aidan McAnespie’s family and supporters attended today’s hearing, and outside there were protestors supporting British government plans to end prosecutions of former soldiers for killings during the Troubles.
>**Plans to ban future prosecutions of former soldiers**
>Despite announcing its intent last summer, the UK government is yet to table draft legislation in Parliament that would ban future prosecutions of military veterans and ex-paramilitaries for Troubles incidents predating April 1998.
>The Holden case is one of a series of high-profile prosecutions of veterans that have been pursued in Northern Ireland in recent years.
>In October last year, 80-year-old Dennis Hutchings died in the middle of his trial after contracting Covid-19.
>A former member of the Life Guards regiment, Hutchings, from Cawsand in Cornwall, had been accused of the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham, a man with learning difficulties, in Co Tyrone in 1974.
>Mr Cunningham, 27, was shot dead as he ran away from an Army patrol across a field near Benburb.
>Six months earlier, the case against two other veterans who were accused of murdering republican leader Joe McCann in 1972 collapsed in the early stages of the trial.
>The Crown said it would offer no further evidence against soldiers A and C after the judge ruled key statements given by the former paratroopers inadmissible.
>Official IRA leader McCann, 24, was shot dead by soldiers as he attempted to evade arrest by a plain-clothes police officer in the Markets Area of Belfast in April 1972.
>The judge’s ruling in the McCann case subsequently prompted prosecutors to discontinue the prosecution of the only former solider charged in connection with the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry in January 1972.
>Soldier F had been charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney, but Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service dropped the case before it reached trial amid concerns it could collapse over the same sort of admissibility issue.
>However, last week the High Court in Belfast quashed the PPS move and told prosecutors to reconsider their decision to halt the case against the veteran paratrooper.
He was murdered
I’m on team COVID ✊
Cue all the hardcore loyalist cunts with their vile, unfounded ‘he was guilty as hell’ comments. Wait now til you see all the ‘I stand with soldier X’ flegs all over the north this July.
5 comments
>A former British soldier has gone on trial charged in connection with the death of Aidan McAnespie, who was shot dead after walking through a British Army checkpoint close to the Tyrone/Monaghan border to attend a GAA match in 1988.
>David Holden has admitted firing the fatal shot from a machine gun, but claims it was accidental.
>Aidan McAnespie died after one of three high calibre bullets fired from a machine gun at a permanent British army checkpoint ricocheted off the road and hit him in the back.
>The 23-year-old was on his way to attend in a GAA match and had just walked past the checkpoint in the village of Aughnacloy in Co Tyrone on 21 February, 1988.
>Former Grenadier Guardsman David Holden, who was 18 at the time, is charged with manslaughter.
>The 52-year-old has admitted firing the shots, but claims his hands were wet and that his finger slipped off the trigger guard and on to the trigger and fired the machine gun accidentally.
>A prosecution lawyer told Belfast Crown Court this morning that the public prosecution service does not believe his account of what happened is credible.
>Ciaran Murphy QC said nine pounds of pressure was required to fire the machinegun, and that David Holden had told another soldier shortly after the shooting that he had squeezed the trigger.
>Even if the gun had been fired accidentally, he told the court that as a professional soldier trained in the use of weapons, David Holden was guilty of gross negligence manslaughter.
>Members of Aidan McAnespie’s family and supporters attended today’s hearing, and outside there were protestors supporting British government plans to end prosecutions of former soldiers for killings during the Troubles.
>**Plans to ban future prosecutions of former soldiers**
>Despite announcing its intent last summer, the UK government is yet to table draft legislation in Parliament that would ban future prosecutions of military veterans and ex-paramilitaries for Troubles incidents predating April 1998.
>The Holden case is one of a series of high-profile prosecutions of veterans that have been pursued in Northern Ireland in recent years.
>In October last year, 80-year-old Dennis Hutchings died in the middle of his trial after contracting Covid-19.
>A former member of the Life Guards regiment, Hutchings, from Cawsand in Cornwall, had been accused of the attempted murder of John Pat Cunningham, a man with learning difficulties, in Co Tyrone in 1974.
>Mr Cunningham, 27, was shot dead as he ran away from an Army patrol across a field near Benburb.
>Six months earlier, the case against two other veterans who were accused of murdering republican leader Joe McCann in 1972 collapsed in the early stages of the trial.
>The Crown said it would offer no further evidence against soldiers A and C after the judge ruled key statements given by the former paratroopers inadmissible.
>Official IRA leader McCann, 24, was shot dead by soldiers as he attempted to evade arrest by a plain-clothes police officer in the Markets Area of Belfast in April 1972.
>The judge’s ruling in the McCann case subsequently prompted prosecutors to discontinue the prosecution of the only former solider charged in connection with the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry in January 1972.
>Soldier F had been charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney, but Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service dropped the case before it reached trial amid concerns it could collapse over the same sort of admissibility issue.
>However, last week the High Court in Belfast quashed the PPS move and told prosecutors to reconsider their decision to halt the case against the veteran paratrooper.
He was murdered
I’m on team COVID ✊
Cue all the hardcore loyalist cunts with their vile, unfounded ‘he was guilty as hell’ comments. Wait now til you see all the ‘I stand with soldier X’ flegs all over the north this July.
About fucking time !!