MoD obliged to preserve records relating to Troubles for next 10 years
It is believed to cover some 50,000 documents relating to Operation Banner, and comes after a request by lawyers for the family of a teenage girl killed in Londonderry in 1971.
Annette McGavigan, 14, was killed during unrest in Derry on September 6. She was said to have been playing with a friend when she was shot dead.
Her family has been campaigning for decades for answers and justice. There is a mural in her memory in the Bogside area of the city.
Last year, Northern Ireland's Attorney General Dame Brenda King granted a fresh inquest into Miss McGavigan's death, but that came just before the former Government's Legacy Act deadline which halted all inquests which had not reached their final stages.
It also followed a decision by the Public Prosecution Service not to prosecute a former soldier in relation to the teenager's death.
Miss McGavigan's family has expressed hope that the current Labour Government will honour the fresh inquests directed by the Attorney General before the cut-off date in April 2024.
It is understood that there are some 22 inquests relating to more than 40 deaths in Northern Ireland still outstanding, with some other previously unallocated legacy inquests also due to be honoured.
Patricia Coyle, solicitor for Miss McGavigan's family, said they have secured a Preservation Order for the MoD documents for a further period of 10 years to 2035.
They wrote to the MoD, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (SSCMS) in April to request an extension of an existing Preservation Order for all MoD Operation Banner documents dating from August 1969 to July 2007.
The 2014 order listed the documents to be preserved as including 'operational briefs and summaries, log sheets, patrol and incident reports from Operation Banner in Northern Ireland'.
Miss Gavigan's family said they want to ensure that the MoD continues to preserve all Army documents relating to Operation Banner for the period 1969 to 2007 so that they, and other families seeking information in legacy cases, can access relevant state materials for the purposes of future legacy inquests, civil actions and public inquiries.
Ms Coyle said the Preservation Order is of the utmost importance to all families seeking answers over incidents involving the Army during the Troubles.
'In 2015, my clients sought the preservation of all relevant MoD documents relating to British Army's activities in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007,' she said.
'In particular they wished to secure the preservation of all Army documents relating to the killing of their 14-year-old sister Annette on September 6 1971 in Derry so these are available for the fresh inquest they achieved last year.'
She said the first Preservation Order for these documents was granted in December 2014 for 10 years.
'The legal obligation to preserve 50,000 Army records relating to Northern Ireland was transferred from the Lord Chancellor to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport (SSCMS) in 2015,' she said.
'In April, this year our clients sought a further Preservation Order from the MoD, Lord Chancellor and SSCMS. Lawyers acting on behalf of the Ministry of Defence have now confirmed that a further 10-year Preservation Order was signed by SSCMS on May 6 2025.
'The preservation of these records is of paramount importance for all families in Northern Ireland who seek access to information and truth about the killing of their loved ones in cases involving the Army.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Minister u-turns a second time on Nuked Blood
Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard has "performed backflips" over the fight for justice for victims of the Nuked Blood Scandal, say campaigners Victims of the Nuked Blood Scandal have been promised answers this summer as a minister has flip-flopped on supporting them for a second time. Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard was shown a clip of nuclear veterans being interviewed on a Newsnight special, and asked if he and the Prime Minister would agree to their request for a meeting to discuss their evidence of a criminal cover-up over human radiation experiments. Mr Pollard did not answer the question, but pledged there would be answers soon from a ministerial review of the archives ordered last year in the wake of a BBC documentary. "We'll be making an announcement in the summer about what that review has found," said Mr Pollard. "I want to see justice for those folks that were exposed to nuclear testing all those decades ago, because we're running out of time for many of them still being around." About 40,000 UK and Commonwealth troops took part in the Cold War weapons testing programme, held in Australia and the Pacific between 1952 and 1967. Only 10% of them are believed to still be alive. They report a catalogue of early deaths, cancers, blood conditions, miscarriages for their wives and 10 times the usual rate of birth defects in their children. Keir Starmer, who told veterans "your campaign is our campaign" in Oppposition, has ignored requests to meet them to discuss evidence of the Mirror's 3-year investigation in to secret biological monitoring of troops, with blood tests, urine tests, and chest x-rays ordered, taken, and subsequently removed from the men's medical files. Speaking to Newsnight presenter Faisal Islam, Mr Pollard appeared to take credit for the review. "As a constituency MP, before the election I was campaigning on behalf of nuclear test veterans to get the info they need. That's why as a government we've committed to review the files held by MoD and the Atomic Weapons Establishment," he said. "We know the consequences for many of those people participating in the tests are carried, not just by individuals, but by their family members. That's why we want to work out what we can declassify and share, and get to the heart of trying to get justice for those individuals." But the minister had a different view just last November, when he was asked in Parliament about delivering compensation to the same people. "The MoD has no current plans to develop a specific compensation scheme for either nuclear test veterans or their families," he said, suggesting they apply for a war pension instead. The MoD says it has no data on nuclear veteran war pensions, but it is believed only around 1% are successful, due to the lack of available medical data. Yet two years earlier, he had demanded payouts for nuclear veterans while in Opposition. "It's really dumb that the UK government has been denying not only a medal for their exceptional service 70 years ago, but compensation too," he told the Mirror's News Agenda podcast. Until those veterans get the recognition and compensation they need, this campaign must continue." Veterans say they are bemused at the minister's apparent changes of opinion. Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: "The minister has performed backflips, in an effort not to land on the main point - he's the one in government, and he's the one with a moral responsibility to deliver the compensation he demanded. "Why did he change his mind after hard evidence of wrongdoing emerged, and why has he changed it back again when asked about it by the BBC?"
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Army reveals scale of damage done to DC streets following Trump's military parade
The U.S. Army has presented its initial assessment of the damage done to the roads of Washington, D.C., by the heavy battle tanks that were a key part of President Donald Trump 's 250th birthday celebration for the military. The president ordered a lavish parade to honor the founding of the Army on June 14, which also happened to be Trump's birthday. In advance of the event, city officials had expressed concern that the tanks participating could place undue strain on Washington's streets, potentially requiring millions of dollars in maintenance work to repair. The budget for the festivities was estimated at $45 million, with $16 million of that total set aside for road repairs. Organizers moved in advance to place thick metal plates, up to 20 feet in length, at turning points along the route to ease the pressure, at a cost of $3 million. Speaking in advance of the event, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she was 'concerned' about the potential scope of the damage. 'These are, for the most part, local streets, and if they're rendered unusable, we have to make them usable,' she said. 'Probably we would fix it and then go seek our money from the Fed. That gives me some concern about fronting costs and waiting for them to get back.' Happily, however, the Army has concluded that the damage to the capital's highways and byways was minimal. 'A tank ran over a curb, and that curb got broken – crushed,' spokesman Steve Warren said. 'So, we will be fixing that. But, right now, that's the only damage that we've identified.' He added that a 'subterranean' assessment of the roads is still ongoing to check whether the parade damaged underground cables or other infrastructure. D.C. Department of Transportation spokesman German Vigil also said a visual survey of city roads had revealed no apparent issues. The National Park Service is meanwhile waiting one month to make a final assessment of possible damage to federally controlled roadways, such as the Mall and the George Washington Parkway. Warren also revealed that the final attendance figures for the parade were approximately 198,000, some way short of the 250,000 claimed by the White House. The event itself largely passed off without adverse incident and appeared to achieve its aims. However, the president allegedly raged at U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth behind the scenes over the troops taking part, in his opinion, for presenting too cheery a demeanor. 'He's p***ed off at the soldiers,' Trump biographer Michael Wolff claimed on The Daily Beast 's podcast in its aftermath. 'He's accusing them of hamming it up, and by that, he seems to mean that they were having a good time, that they were waving, that they were enjoying themselves and showing a convivial face rather than a military face.' The show of military might came on the same day that millions of people took to the streets of America's cities for a 'No Kings' protest against Trump, hours after Minnesota Democrat Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered by a political assassin and against a backdrop of unrest in Los Angeles and conflict in the Middle East.
Belfast Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Two ex-police officers among suspects in NI teen's unsolved murder as report finds ‘systematic failings' in probe
It comes after a new report found a series of blunders in the original investigation into Marian Beattie's death. The 18-year-old's partially-clothed body was found at the bottom of a quarry near Aughnacloy after she had left a dance with an unidentified male in the early hours of March 31, 1973. No one has ever been charged with or convicted of her murder. A Police Ombudsman report said there had been 'systemic failings' in the investigation. Three suspects had paramilitary links and two were former police officers. The report found police had failed to ensure all lines of enquiry were progressed, that all suspects were interviewed and that all alibis were checked. Officers also did not ensure discrepancies between some suspects' accounts and other evidence were examined. Police Ombudsman chief executive Hugh Hume said Marian's family had not received the service that they deserved from the police. 'In 50-plus years after her murder, up until earlier this year, there were only eight documented contacts between the police and the family,' he said. "It is understandable that they have lost confidence and trust in the police. 'Although our enquiries found no evidence of individual police criminality, nor misconduct by any serving officer, the police investigation of Marian's murder has been undermined by organisational and systemic failings.' Mr Hume added that although Marian was murdered in 1973, there were lessons to be learned from the case of relevance to current policing. 'At the time of Marian's murder the police faced significant policing challenges, with hundreds of murders each year being attributed to the Troubles, and that context was taken into account during our enquiries,' he added. 'Nevertheless, we must learn from past errors and omissions, particularly if we are to properly address the problem of violence against women and girls in local society. Northern Ireland has the second-highest levels of femicide in western Europe,' he said. 'Unfortunately, the Police Ombudsman has found a similar lack of investigative rigour and pre-emptive conclusions in some recent PSNI femicide investigations.' He added: 'It is my hope that our recommendation for an independent review will help to ensure that future police enquiries into Marian's murder are comprehensive and focused.' The Police Ombudsman's investigation was initiated by a referral received from the then Chief Constable in 2017. Marian went missing after attending a dance at Hadden's Garage near Aughnacloy, attended by 400-500 people, on the evening of March 30/31 1973. She had gone there with a friend and her older brother, and was last seen walking in the direction of Hadden's Quarry with an unidentified male. After being reported missing, her body was found at the bottom of the quarry, beneath a 90 foot drop, the next morning. A post mortem examination concluded Marian had died from multiple injuries - some consistent with a fall, but others deemed to have been sustained separately. Items from the scene, including clothing and forensic samples, were sent for forensic testing, but all are now missing. These include a shoe which had a palm print, formed in mud, which became a significant focus for police. Mr Hume said there had been an over-reliance on the palm print. 'More weight was placed on the value of the palm print to the investigation than it could bear," he added, saying it was also based on the assumption that the print had been left by her killer. Investigators found the examination of palm prints were the only enquiries conducted in relation to three suspects, resulting in their exclusion from the investigation prematurely. Mr Hume said significant outstanding lines of enquiry in relation to suspects that had not been pursued. In particular, Ombudsman investigators found no evidence that police conducted any interviews with a number of suspects; checked a number of suspect alibis; or made enquiries about the whereabouts of some suspects on the night. Discrepancies between the accounts of some suspects and other evidence were not properly examined, investigators found. The Ombudsman probe was also hampered by the loss of police exhibits and documentation. This includes documentary evidence, statements, records of interviews with witness and suspects, and officers' journals, and completed questionnaires from 419 people at the dance are also missing. All physical exhibits recovered during the initial police investigation are also missing. Mr Hume said: 'If these exhibits had been available, it may have been possible to have conducted further forensic testing using current forensic capabilities, and it is possible that this may have resulted in the identification of the person responsible for Marian's murder." The investigation found that up until earlier this year, there are only eight documented contacts between police and Marian's family in the five decades since her murder - although investigators noted that records of the actions taken by police were incomplete. 'Marian's family have lost confidence in the police. There should have been greater levels of communication and transparency," Mr Hume said. Family members told Ombudsman investigators that police had made comments on four separate occasions that led them to believe there were potential links between suspects and either police, military/security services or paramilitaries. Although there were no police records of this being discussed, available information suggests it is more likely than not that such comments had been made. The Police Ombudsman investigation found that three suspects had paramilitary links and two were former police officers. 'Although our investigation has found significant errors and omissions during the police enquiries into Marian's murder, it is my hope that the independent review we have recommended will ensure that every effort is made to uncover the truth about her murder, and to finally bring her killer, if still alive, to justice,' Mr Hume said.
