Ex-British soldier avoids jail for killing Catholic man at Northern Ireland army checkpoint in 1988
2 February 2023, 14:12 | Updated: 2 February 2023, 14:44
An ex-British soldier, 53, who was found guilty of killing a man during the Troubles in Northern Ireland has avoided a jail sentence.
David Holden, who was convicted of the manslaughter of Aidan McAnespie in November last year, was instead given a three-year suspended sentence.
Holden, who was 18 at the time of the killing, was the first veteran to be convicted of a historical offence since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which saw the end of decades of conflict.
Aidan McAnespie, 23, was killed in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, in 1988.
Mr McAnespie, who was unarmed, was hit in the back by a bullet that ricocheted off the road on the way to Gaelic football match.
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During his non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court last year, Holden denied the charge of gross negligence manslaughter.
But trial judge Mr Justice O'Hara said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Holden was guilty.
Holden, who was serving with the Grenadier Guards, admitted firing the shot which killed the 23-year-old, but said he fired the weapon by accident as his hands were wet.
But the judge found that Holden had pointed a machine gun at Mr McAnespie and pulled the trigger, while assuming the gun was not cocked.
He told Belfast Crown Court: "That assumption should not have been made."
He also said the ex-soldier had given a "deliberately false account" of what occurred.
The judge drew attention to victim impact statements given by Mr McAnespie's family to the court.
He said: "Aidan was the youngest of the six McAnespie children.
"The statements described the devastating impact the killings had on the whole extended family, how it changed their lives and how hugely challenging it has been over decades.
"I have no doubt this was made worse by the family's sense of injustice that Mr Holden was not brought to trial at the time.
"This is something the family shares with far too many other families in our society who have not seen anyone held to account for all manner of killings, bombings and shootings."
Included in the statements is a haunting description of Mrs McAnespie walking from her home every night past the Army checkpoint to the point where her son was killed in tears saying the rosary.
In a statement by Holden read out during the trial, the former soldier described the incident in 1988 including the claim that he had accidentally set the gun off. He also said he believed Mr McAnespie was a suspected member of the IRA.'I knew McAnespie as a 'tax rep', which to me means that he is a suspected member of the IRA.'
Under the provisions of the Good Friday agreement, Holden could only have served a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
Members of Mr McAnespie's family were in court for the sentencing hearing.
A representative of a veterans' organisation described the sentence handed down to Holden as 'extremely harsh'.
Paul Young, from the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement, which campaigns against the prosecution of soldiers who served in the region, said: "We believe that the sentence today was extremely harsh, considering the passage of time and what David Holden has had to go through over the last number of years.
"When you compare this to the Good Friday Agreement and the deals that were struck about terrorists, that they would never serve more than two years if they were convicted of any legacy offence.
"Now we have David Holden convicted for a manslaughter through gross negligence so there is clearly a disparity between terrorists and the security forces that served in Northern Ireland."
"It is a disgrace and should never have happened."
