{"id":154951,"date":"2025-10-31T08:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T08:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/154951\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T08:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T08:45:10","slug":"uk-government-footing-soldier-f-defence-bill-flies-in-face-of-camerons-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/154951\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government footing Soldier F defence bill \u2018flies in face of Cameron\u2019s apology\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK government paying millions to defend Soldier F<\/strong> \u201cflies in the face\u201d of former prime minister David Cameron\u2019s apology to the Bloody Sunday<\/strong> victims, a family member has said.<\/p>\n

Mickey McKinney<\/strong>, whose brother was one of those killed in the shootings in Derry in 1972, described as \u201churtful\u201d learning that the UK government paid more than \u00a34 million to defend Soldier F.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat money flies in the face of David Cameron\u2019s apology, it was really hurtful,\u201d he told the PA news agency.<\/p>\n

He was speaking after it emerged that the UK government has spent \u00a34.3 million so far on the defence of the former paratrooper.<\/p>\n

The veteran, known as Soldier F for legal reasons, was found not guilty of two murders and five attempted murders in Derry in 1972 following a judge-led trial at Belfast Crown Court.<\/p>\n

13 people were killed when members of the Parachute Regiment opened fire on crowds following a civil rights demonstration in the city.<\/p>\n

Judge Patrick Lynch said the evidence presented against the veteran fell \u201cwell short\u201d of what was required for conviction.<\/p>\n

Minister for Veterans and People Alistair Cairns revealed the figure following a parliamentary question (PQ) asked by SDLP MP for Foyle Colum Eastwood.<\/p>\n

Mr Eastwood described it as a \u201cdouble injustice\u201d for the families of those killed during Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n

In his response to the PQ, Mr Cairns said the Ministry of Defence is \u201ccommitted to supporting veterans and their families\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the \u00a34.3 million includes legal fees from when Soldier F was initially charged in March 2019 and costs associated with a judicial review taken against a decision by Northern Ireland\u2019s Public Prosecution Service (PPS) previously to stop the proceedings.<\/p>\n

It includes legal and welfare support.<\/p>\n

Mr McKinney told the PA news agency that he was very surprised to hear the total and was left feeling shocked.<\/p>\n

He said family members, many of whom are now elderly, spent hours every day of the five-week trial travelling from Derry to Belfast each day it sat.<\/p>\n

They had pressed for the trial to be held at Bishop Street court house in Derry.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland\u2019s political leaders divided over Soldier F acquittal<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr McKinney also hit back at those who had countered their reaction to the legal bill, by pointing out the \u00a3190 million cost of the Saville Inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inquiry was something that should have happened immediately after Bloody Sunday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should have happened over 50 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK government paying millions to defend Soldier F \u201cflies in the face\u201d of former prime minister David…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-154951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115467906227116442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154951","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=154951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}