Saville wrong to suggest families didn’t want prosecutions – BSMC

The Bloody Sunday March Committee has said Lord Saville was misinformed if he was told the victims’ families did not want prosecutions.
In a statement, spokesperson Kate Nash said Lord Saville and others may have been given the impression that the families wouldn’t pursue prosecutions. If so, whoever gave him that impression was not speaking for the families.
Last evening, Lord Saville told the BBC his understanding was the demand was for an inquiry to find out what happened, and why, rather than a question of prosecutions.
In today’s statement, Kate Nash says the demands of the campaign were repeatedly set out: repudiation of the Widgery Report; a declaration that all the dead and wounded had been innocent; and the prosecution of those responsible.
She says campaigners knew from the outset that evidence to the Inquiry could not in itself be the basis for prosecutions. However, she adds, they also knew that evidence given to the Inquiry could be used as the starting point for investigating whether criminal charges should be brought.
This, she says, is what happened.
Ms Nash says the public Inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster provides a precedent. Ninety-six Liverpool football fans were crushed to death as a result of the actions and inactions of the South Yorkshire police. The most senior officer involved on the day, Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, has since been charged with 95 counts of manslaughter.
All we are asking, she concludes, is that the same standard should apply to those responsible for the deaths on Bloody Sunday.