The judge in the Dennis Hutchings case has said he will give his verdict on Monday 26th June and Dennis will not need to be present. This must be viewed as good news for Dennis he will not receive a custodial sentence. We all hope that the verdict will be ‘not guilty’ of all charges.

Whatever the verdict this can only be regarded as a victory and a setback to the Historical Investigations process run by the DPP Northern Ireland.

None of us will ever know what effect our labours have had to influence this decision but every man and woman who marched, every e-mail, letter and Facebook share all contributed in some small way and each and every contributor should be enormously proud.

However, (all being well) now is not the time for crowing or back slapping this is the first battle and possibly the most important. This was a test case for the DPP and Sinn Fein and it would appear that they have lost it. There are more cases to come. The next two men to face court are from 1 Para, men who were at ‘Bloody Sunday’.

Campaign for Northern Ireland Veterans (cont).

We must now reorganise and direct our combined efforts towards supporting them. They are probably going to appear in Londonderry; a tough place to influence. We must keep up the fight and we must all support other groups who want to contribute.

On Monday I hope we can have a beer and say ‘Well done – so far’.

See you soon.

Robin Horsfall

www.robinhorsfall.co.uk

Campaign for Northern Ireland Veterans