On 14 July 2025, there will be a Westminster Hall debate following a petition created by a former Army officer, calling for the Government to ensure that no veteran who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles can ever be prosecuted for crimes committed during that conflict.
As was the case during the passage of the despised Legacy Act, this debate is clouded by myths and ignorance about both the conflict and what has happened in the years since the Good Friday Agreement. Those purporting to act in the interests of veterans have, so far, had absolutely nothing to say about the shutting down of investigations into the maiming and murder of hundreds of service personnel when the Legacy Act was passed. This issue has been reported in the Guardian today
Pte Tony Harrison (pictured) was a 21 year-old British soldier who had served two tours of duty in Northern Ireland. He was murdered by the IRA in 1991. An IRA-RUC double-agent has admitted to being involved in the murder. The men that killed Pte Harrison were never officially identified, properly investigated or charged. Pte Harrison’s mother, Martha Seaman and her surviving son, Andy Seaman, have been seeking answers and accountability for Pte Harrison’s death ever since. In 2016, the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland accepted the case for investigation, with a view to examining whether there had been any police misconduct or criminality connected to the death. His criminal case also remained open.
The Legacy Act closed down those cases and removed any hope the family had that anyone would ever be properly investigated, charged or convicted of Tony’s killing.
Pte Harrison’s family was not alone. 722 service personnel were killed in paramilitary attacks like these in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. We now know from a Freedom of Information Act request that there were 225 cases still under or awaiting investigation where the victim was a member of the armed forces, at the time that the Legacy Act was passed. The Act ended all of those cases.
There have been just six prosecutions brought against veterans since the Good Friday Agreement, more than 25 years ago. There has been just ONE conviction. That is not a witch-hunt.
Like any other defendant, veterans are entitled to the full protection of the criminal law, including special measures to protect and support them to give their best evidence if they are charged. They should not be subjected to multiple poor-quality investigations. If they are too elderly or frail to stand trial, that may be a reason not to send a case to trial – the same principle is true in any criminal case.
But as a matter of principle, soldiers and veterans are not entitled to immunity from prosecution where there is evidence to suggest serious criminality, any more than anyone else. To suggest otherwise severely undermines previous governments’ belated apologies for unlawful killings by soldiers revealed by recent inquests, and brings the armed forces into disrepute. Such a proposal would also be unlawful – as the High Court and Court of Appeal in NI found last year.
Andy Seaman, the brother of the late Pte Tony Harrison, said:
Emma Norton, Director of the CMJ and who represents Pte Harrison’s family said:
‘Protesters and political actors must stop stoking the fears of the veteran community. It is irresponsible to encourage veterans to live in perpetual fear of getting a knock at the door and activists should not be pouring fuel on the fire of elderly men’s fears. There has been a single conviction of a veteran since the Good Friday Agreement – this is no witch-hunt. Those that served in the extremely difficult environment of NI during Operation Banner and who acted reasonably and within the law and rules of engagement as they genuinely understood them to be, have nothing to fear. This protest is presented as in the interests of the armed forces but is nothing of the sort. All it does is create the impression that the armed forces consider themselves to be above the law. This is fundamentally inconsistent with everything we know about the service personnel we support who expect and are entitled to be both bound by and protected by the law.’
13 July 2025