Government spent over £4m on Soldier F case | UK News

Foyle MP Colum Eastwood has described the government spending more than £4m “at public expense” on the defence of Soldier F as “sickening”.

The former paratrooper, whose identity is protected by a court order, was found not guilty earlier this month of two murders and five charges of attempted murder on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972.

Legal fees for the case of £4.3m were revealed in a parliamentary answer to the SDLP MP.

Eastwood said the final figure would be “much higher” once all bills are received.

Thirteen people were shot dead and at least 15 others injured on 30 January 1972 at a civil rights demonstration in the Bogside area of Londonderry.

Speaking to Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme, Eastwood said the spending was in stark contrast to the financial help the Bloody Sunday families had received.

“We have to remember during this whole trial the families had to make their own way to Belfast,” he said

“They had no support at all from the government.”

“But this guy who’s been a protected species for 53 years is getting millions of our money spent on him.”

Eastwood said the case only happened “because he (Soldier F) and other soldiers perjured themselves at the Saville inquiry”.

“He put himself in that situation by lying to the Saville inquiry.”

“I’ve asked more questions about exactly what money was spent and what rates were paid,” he added.

Veterans minister Alistair Carns gave details of the Soldier F costs in response to a written question from Eastwood.

He said the Ministry of Defence was “committed” to supporting veterans, and that Soldier F had received legal and welfare support throughout proceedings.

Carns added the expenditure dates from March 2019, when the former paratrooper was first charged.

They also include costs associated with judicial review proceedings.

Ulster Unionist Party MLA, Doug Beattie, said “it is a huge amount of money, as was the £192m spent on the Saville Inquiry”.

“This is an employer putting in defence of an employee, an employee they sent to Northern Ireland knowing full rightly that they had not done all that they should have done to make sure that he was trained properly for deploying to that type of environment.”

“So I’m not surprised by this,” he added.

“The only people who benefitted from any of this has been the lawyers,” he added.

Soldier F is the only military veteran who has been prosecuted over the shootings.

The five charges of attempted murder related to two teenagers at the time 16-year-old Joe Mahon and 17-year-old Michael Quinn as well as Joseph Friel, who was 20, and Patrick O’Donnell, 41, and an unknown person.

The case was heard by a judge sitting without a jury at Belfast Crown Court and lasted five weeks.

To protect his identity, Soldier F was screened from public view and his name not disclosed, as a result of a court order.

The decision to charge Soldier F was taken by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in 2019.

He was one of 18 former soldiers reported to the PPS as a result of a police investigation, which followed the public inquiry into Bloody Sunday conducted by Lord Saville.

But he was the only one charged.

Two years later, the PPS dropped the case after the collapse of the trial of two other veterans who had been accused of a 1972 murder in Belfast.

But the prosecution resumed in 2022 after a legal challenge.