{"id":152276,"date":"2025-10-29T23:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/152276\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T23:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:00:12","slug":"more-than-4m-spent-by-british-government-on-soldier-f-defence-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/152276\/","title":{"rendered":"More than \u00a34m spent by British Government on Soldier F defence \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than \u00a34m was spent by the British Government on the defence of Soldier F<\/a> as he faced prosecution for the murder of two people on Bloody Sunday<\/a>, it emerged on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood <\/a>described the premium placed on defending soldiers as an \u201cinsult to victims who are left to fight for truth and justice alone\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is sick,\u201d the SDLP representative said after the amount spent on the defence of the soldier was revealed in response to a parliamentary question from the MP.<\/p>\n

In a written answer, Al Carns, the veterans minister and under-secretary for defence, said the \u201clegal fees associated with these proceedings (including associated judicial reviews) amount to \u00a34.3 million, which may rise marginally once final bills are received\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"Controversial<\/a>\"Sign<\/a>\"TheA floral tribute left at the Bloody Sunday monument in the Derry Bogside on the day that Soldier F was found not guilty of murder. PICTURE: MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN 23-10-2025 (MARGARET MCLAUGHLIN COPYRIGHT \/ ) <\/p>\n

\u201cThese costs cover the period from when Soldier F was initially charged in March 2019. This includes costs associated with the Judicial Review leading to the PPS recommencing proceedings in 2022,\u201d the answer stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegal representation has been provided by the same experienced legal team since the Saville Inquiry, supplemented by leading solicitors and barristers, including King\u2019s Counsel, based in Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soldier F last week was acquitted of the murder of William McKinney <\/a>(22) and 26-year-old James Wray in Derry in January 1972. He previously admitted, during the Saville Inquiry, shooting dead four people on Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"ColumColum Eastwood speaking to the media outside Westminster on Wednesday (Lucy North\/PA) <\/p>\n

In his answer, Mr Carns said the Ministry of Defence \u201cis committed to supporting veterans and their families. As part of this, Soldier F has received legal and welfare support throughout his legal proceedings at public expense\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther costs associated with the support of Soldier F, such as pastoral care, arrangement and payment of travel and accommodation, etc, are met from a central budget and involve the time of various employees for which a specific cost cannot be calculated.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a statement, Mr Eastwood said the soldier came to Derry as \u201cpart of a regiment that shot and killed innocent civil rights protestors as they ran for their lives\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"VeteransVeterans minister Alistair Carns <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a self-confessed killer and yet for more than 50 years, he has been a protected species in the eyes of the British Government,\u201d Mr Eastwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cAble and enabled to go about his life while his actions subjected good, innocent people in our city to decades of heartache and hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Foyle MP said the millions were spent despite the conclusions of Lord Saville in his inquiry report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Derry will never leave the Bloody Sunday families and the wounded to fight alone. We are still with them and will never abandon them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than \u00a34m was spent by the British Government on the defence of Soldier F as he faced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[45955,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,3800,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-152276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bloody-sunday","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-murder","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news","24":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115459943804348012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}