Ex-soldiers will not be prosecuted over 1971 deaths

Two soldiers will not be prosecuted over the killing of two unarmed civilians, including a schoolgirl, in Londonderry more than half century ago.

Prosecutors said on Monday there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the soldiers suspected of shooting dead Annette McGavigan, 14, and 41-year-old William McGreanery

Annette McGavigan was shot dead during rioting in the Bogside on 6 September 1971.

Mr McGreanery, a shop assistant, died just over a week later on 15 September after a soldier opened fire from an Army sanger overlooking the junctions of Eastway, Lonemoor Road and Westland Street.

Public Prosecution Service assistant director Martin Hardy said the evidence had been “carefully considered”.

“It has been determined that the available evidence in both cases is insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction,” he said.

In 2021, a soldier was interviewed under caution about Mr McGreanery’s killing by the PSNI’s legacy investigation branch.

A file was submitted to the PPS in June 2022.

Annette McGavigan was the 100th civilian killed in the Troubles.

Last September, a former British soldier was questioned under caution as part of the police investigation.

A file was submitted to the PPS on 6 February.

Mr Hardy said both cases “featured significant evidential difficulties” due to the circumstances in which accounts were taken by the Royal Military Police in 1971 and later by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiries Team.

Additionally, he said, the death of significant witnesses and a failure to conduct effective investigations in 1971, had further “ hampered investigative efforts and the prosecutorial prospects”.

The PPS said in the case of Annette McGavigan, prosecutors could not prove that the reported suspect fired the shots that killed the teenager.

It could also not be proved that shots may have been aimed at a gunman that some witnesses had reported seeing.

Mr McGreanery was unarmed and presented no threat to any soldier, the PPS said.

However the evidence was insufficient to proceed with a prosecution.

Mr Hardy added: “We recognise that these decisions not to prosecute will be deeply disappointing to the victims’ families who lost their loved one in very painful circumstances and are understandably still seeking clarity on what happened.”

The PPS decision comes just two days ahead of the 1 May deadline from when prosecutions under the UK’s controversial Troubles Legacy Act will be limited.

Under the act, prosecutions that are currently ongoing will continue to conclusion.

Any case after 1 May would become the responsibility of a new body set up to investigate Troubles-related killings – the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

The Irish government has mounted a legal challenge to the act in the European Court of Human Rights.