Favourable treatment of British soldiers during inquiries is “morally wrong” and “might be outside of the law”

“That the HET is investigating the deaths of people at the hands of the British Army differently from other killings is unacceptable” – Gerry Kelly

A report by the University of Ulster into the independence of the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) has said that British soldiers were given favourable treatment and that certain cases were not investigated properly.

The Historical Enquiries Team is a unit of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) which was set up in 2005 to investigate unsolved killings which occurred during the conflict in the north of Ireland.

Research by University of Ulster academic Dr. Patricia Lundy shows that former British soldiers were given preferential treatement compared to former IRA volunteers, other republicans and members of loyalist organisations. This treatement included providing soldiers with extensive pre-interview material and questioning British soldiers as witnesses rather than suspects.

Victims Commissioner Patricia McBride said such an approach was “morally wrong and I suspect it might be outside of the law”.

“What concerns me in this report that Patricia Lundy has published now is that different approaches appear to be taken by the HET depending on who is the victim and who is the perpetrator.” she said

Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said that the findings only confirm what Sinn Féin had been saying from the outset, that there is a alack of independence in HET investigations.

“That the HET is investigating the deaths of people at the hands of the British Army differently from other killings is unacceptable” he said.

“Sinn Féin supports people's right to engage with the HET and accepts that some families have come away from the HET process with a degree of comfort.

“Any deaths during the conflict need to be investigated with the same vigour regardless of who carried out the killing or the standing of the person killed. Sinn Féin is calling for an independent assessment of how HET investigations have been and are being carried out.”

One of the cases being investigated by the HET is the Ballymurphy Massacre of August 1971 when British paratroopers went on a two day rampage through the nationalist Ballymurphy area of Belfast. Eleven people were killed during the massacre including the local Catholic priest, who was gunned down as he aided a wounded man and a mother of eight who was shot in the face as she aided a dying 18-year-old bartender.

Belfast solicitor Pádraig Ó Murigh has echoed the concerns raised by Lundy.

“It is a matter of grave concern if these killings have not been independently investigated because these are some of the most controversial killings of the conflict,” he said.

“The HET process appears to depend on the voluntary co-operation of soldiers who are then treated as witnesses rather than as suspects.

“The HET isn't sufficiently independent to deal with such cases. I think the best approach is to have a totally independent unit dealing with British army cases.”

In a statement the PSNI Chief Constable said he will also consider commissioning an independent review of HET processes