logo
‘Unacceptable' exclusion of groups of Troubles victims from compensation scheme

‘Unacceptable' exclusion of groups of Troubles victims from compensation scheme

Leader Live18-05-2025
Relatives For Justice said applications to the scheme from many of those bereaved in the Troubles, victims of plastic and rubber bullets, victims of sexual violence and victims of so-called punishment attacks are being rejected.
The Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme has paid out around £90 million since it opened for applications since 2021, and is set to close to new applications in August 2026.
Relatives For Justice has urged that the scheme be looked at again in terms of how it is operating and whether it is delivering to victims and survivors.
Andree Murphy, deputy director of Relatives For Justice, said for victims of plastic or rubbers bullets there 'appears to be a lack of understanding' of the experience of policing in working class communities.
'Many millions have been paid in compensation to those injured from their use. It is unacceptable that victims, injured by their use, then deliberately arrested and charged for civil disobedience in order to justify their use, are by default excluded from the scheme deemed 'injured by their own hand',' she said.
'For example of the 17 people killed by rubber and plastic bullets, nine of whom were children, all inquests found that those killed were uninvolved in any disturbances and were entirely innocent victims.
'In terms of the use of plastic bullets, it is resulting in an almost blanket approach of disbelief and rejection of those applicants.'
She said the situation is 'even worse' for victims of so-called punishment attacks.
'When the victims survived attacks the physical and psychological injuries were often devastating and life changing for them and their families,' she said.
'Colloquial terms such as 'kneecapping' became known as a form of attack carried out by these groups.
'There is a blanket exclusion of these victims of the conflict with the current interpretation of eligibility.
'In RFJ's view a fresh working interpretation of the legislation would allow these victims and survivors to receive support from this scheme.'
Ms Murphy also raised concern around sexual violence during the Troubles as 'remaining undefined and neglected'.
She said RFJ have worked with an applicant who sexually assaulted as a teenager by a serving police officer, and has been refused compensation under the scheme.
'The scheme does not benefit from a practical understanding of that experience, despite research and a workshop provided at the beginning of the scheme,' she said.
'The narrow interpretation of legislation to exclude these harms as 'private' and unrelated to the conflict has further compounded the isolation and invisibility of the victims of these violations in both the public and private spheres.'
Meanwhile Ms Murphy highlighted the experience of the bereaved who applied to the scheme.
The scheme only allows for the bereaved to access compensation if they were present at the scene of the killing, or the immediate aftermath.
'Relatives for Justice does not believe that this is a scheme which the bereaved should be forced to apply to, however it is the only scheme of reparation in existence, therefore the bereaved will and are applying. 31% of the applications supported by RFJ to date have been with bereaved relatives,' she said.
Last week Mr Justice McAlinden, president of the Victims' Payment Board, described the definition of the current scheme as 'very restrictive' when he appeared before the Stormont Executive Committee.
He told MLAs he regretted omissions from those who are eligible for the scheme, including the bereaved.
He said they had tried to but added that politicians had the power to reconstruct the scheme.
Mr Justice McAlinden also rejected a contention that going through the application process for some was 'dehumanising, cruel, re-traumatising and ritual humiliation'.
However Ms Murphy described the current exclusions as 'unacceptable', and said changes should be made.
'I just don't accept the idea that we can do nothing about how the bereaved are treated unless the British government does something or that kids kneecapped when they were 15 can still be criminalised when they are 60 or that we have a scheme where sexual violence is doubly rendered invisible and silenced,' she added.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

'Ich liebe Deutschland!' Oisin Murphy celebrates biggest win since drink-drive conviction
'Ich liebe Deutschland!' Oisin Murphy celebrates biggest win since drink-drive conviction

Daily Mirror

time33 minutes ago

  • Daily Mirror

'Ich liebe Deutschland!' Oisin Murphy celebrates biggest win since drink-drive conviction

The four-time champion jockey surprised his hosts by giving answers in German after Group 1 success in Munich on Godolphin's Tornado Alert Oisin Murphy caught his hosts by surprise when he recorded his first Group 1 victory since he was convicted of drink-driving on Sunday. ‌ Earlier in July the four-time champion jockey was fined £70,000 and banned from driving for 20 months earlier in July after being almost twice over the legal alcohol limit in a breath test taken nearly seven hours after his arrest.. The 29-year-old pleaded guilty at Reading magistrates court to driving a motor vehicle while over the prescribed limit of alcohol after the car he was driving left the road and crashed into a tree, injuring a female passenger, in April. ‌ The conviction led to the BHA imposing stricter conditions on his licence which already included a stipulation to 'remain sober' after he completed a 14-month ban for breaking Covid rules and for two alcohol breaches in 2022. ‌ The four-time champion, who had finished second in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, travelled to Germany on Sunday where he steered the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained Tornado Alert to victory in the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis in Munich. The Godolphin three-year-old kicked away from Map Of Stars to score by two and a half lengths, giving Murphy only his second top level success of 2025. Murphy had not registered a Group 1 triumph since landing the Lockinge Stakes on Lead Artist in May. In the post race interview, he gave his initial answers in German, saying: 'It's incredible, he's a fantastic horse and I love the atmosphere here.' He then added: 'Ich liebe Deutschland.' It's not the first time he has displayed his linguistic skills. He also learned Japanese when he rode in the country. He then said: 'It's fantastic to win on Tornado Alert. We were uncertain he would like the ground but he loved it. He ran very well in the Epsom Derby. He was second at Ascot and today he came to Munich and he was brilliant.' ‌ Bin Suroor said: 'He won well, the ground was heavy and he's never run before on this ground, but he handled it well.' 'I said to Oisin before the race 'just keep him happy and give him a chance', but he was travelling good all the way and when he came off the bridle he saw it out well.' Tornado Alert holds big-race entries in the Juddmonte International at York and the Celebration Mile at Goodwood next month, but Bin Suroor is in no rush to firm up future plans, adding: 'We'll see how he comes back after the race and then we'll make a decision. He has plenty of speed, but I think a mile and a quarter is his best trip at the moment.'

Old Bailey bomber Marian Price tells Disney+ to cut Jean McConville murder scene from Say Nothing
Old Bailey bomber Marian Price tells Disney+ to cut Jean McConville murder scene from Say Nothing

Belfast Telegraph

time10 hours ago

  • Belfast Telegraph

Old Bailey bomber Marian Price tells Disney+ to cut Jean McConville murder scene from Say Nothing

Legal papers in former IRA woman's case against streaming giant lodged with Dublin's High Court Old Bailey bomber Marian Price wants Disney+ to remove a scene depicting her murdering Jean McConville from its Troubles TV show Say Nothing. The ex-IRA member is suing the streaming giant over a section of the drama which she claims 'falsely portrays her as having carried out the execution-style murder of Jean McConville by shooting her in the back of the head'.

My dying father was dragged through the courts after serving in the Troubles. It has to stop
My dying father was dragged through the courts after serving in the Troubles. It has to stop

Telegraph

timea day ago

  • Telegraph

My dying father was dragged through the courts after serving in the Troubles. It has to stop

The son of an elderly Troubles veteran has demanded Labour keep a law protecting former servicemen from prosecution. John Hutchings warned planned changes to the Legacy Act would mean 'taking dying people through the courts' like his father had been for actions taken decades ago in the line of duty. He urged the Government to 'stop persecuting soldiers who were trying to defend Britain', adding that 'these guys are far too old to prosecute'. Dennis Hutchings, from Cornwall, died in 2021 aged 80 while on trial over the death of John Patrick Cunningham, a 27-year-old man with learning difficulties, in County Tyrone in 1974. The veteran of the Life Guards regiment was determined to clear his name, despite suffering from kidney failure and requiring dialysis several times a week. He died alone after contracting Covid in Belfast and the trial collapsed, six years after Mr Hutchings was arrested in 2015. The 2023 Legacy Act put an end to fresh historical inquests into deaths that occurred in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, as well as civil actions. It was launched by Boris Johnson, who said the law would 'draw a line under the Troubles', and supporters said it remedied an imbalance in the treatment of both sides of the conflict. But Labour is pressing ahead with repealing elements of the Act that protected veterans from prosecution, arguing it is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland Secretary, has argued that the legislation cannot remain in place in its current form, as it is unpopular with victims groups and political parties there. In his first major intervention on the proposals, Mr Hutchings said allowing further inquests would be 'ridiculous', and described to The Telegraph the toll of the trial on his father. He described seeing his father in court in the final week of the trial: 'I thought 'he's got a week to live'. He was literally, physically drained. He was drawn, thin in the face.' The veteran's son said: 'He would have probably done that court case, finished it, got acquitted, put his arm in the air as a celebration and then probably would have died within a few days anyway. I think he was that ill, that frail at the end.' Mr Hutchings warned: 'You're dragging people through the courts like this. That's what they're doing. They're taking dying people through the courts. It's ridiculous.' Dennis Hutchings was arrested at home in 2015 over the death of Mr Cunningham, who had been running away from an Army patrol when he was shot in the back and killed in 1974. He claimed he shot high over Mr Cunningham's head just to get him to stop and that another soldier – known only as Soldier B, who had since died – told him that it was he who had fired the fatal shot. No ballistics evidence exists to prove who fired the fatal shot. Mr Hutchings was investigated at the time and subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. His son recalled to The Telegraph flying back home to Britain from Belfast on the Friday before his father died, intending to travel back in time for proceedings to restart the following Monday. 'I got a phone call on the Sunday, just saying don't come back,' he said, as his father had contracted Covid. His father died in hospital the following Tuesday. 'What he should have been doing at his age of life is probably sitting at home reading his books, being in his lovely house, enjoying time with his friends, not fighting in court in Northern Ireland,' Mr Hutchings added. One of the more controversial elements of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was the offering of pardons to IRA terrorists in jail and comfort letters who were on the run. The Government's Northern Ireland's veterans' tsar told The Telegraph last month that up to 70 former soldiers could face court if Labour presses ahead with its plans. In a parliamentary debate earlier this month, Labour MPs were supportive of the plans to repeal the Act, which had been part of the manifesto. But some backbenchers urged ministers to provide clarity about what it would be replaced with, and what protections veterans would receive under new laws. Mr Hutchings, 61, warned that veterans who are emotionally or mentally vulnerable 'will struggle to cope', something that his defiant father was all too aware of. 'I think because he knew he was really ill, he was basically doing it for the other soldiers that were coming behind him.' He said of his father's case: 'I don't think he thought it was going to take three or four years, I don't think he knew he was going to be so ill at the end that he was on dialysis. 'But I think originally, when we used to go to London for the demonstrations and all the other stuff, I think it gave him at his age in life something to fight for, to stay alive for.' Dennis Hutchings was supported by Johnny Mercer, a former veterans minister, who accompanied him to Belfast and helped to enact the 2023 legislation. The former minister and ex-Army captain spoke at the veteran's funeral, which took place on Armistice Day in 2021 and was attended by thousands of veterans from across the country. Mr Mercer delivered a eulogy, in which he condemned 'grotesque spectacle of what happened to Dennis in a Belfast court', describing him as 'the quintessential British non-commissioned officer'. Asked if he had a message for the Government about their plans to reverse the Act, Mr Hutchings said: 'These guys were young boys sent out there to do a very tough job. 'Most of them are fantastic guys. Stop prosecuting them and just look at the rest of the problems that this country has and try and deal with that first instead of wasting money on this. These guys are old and frail. Leave them alone.' Dennis Hutchings had been a familiar face at veterans' protests up until his death, but with the prospect of the Legacy Act being undone, the demonstrations started again without him. But his son said: 'I think my Dad, even though he would have been found not guilty in court, would be beside them now, still fighting for every single one of them.' He added: 'I think he would just carry on doing that until he did pass away. I think he would be up in London, in court with the guys behind him fighting their cases as well.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store