Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service is to review a controversial decision not to prosecute a British solider for shooting dead a civilian near the Irish border during the Troubles.
Manslaughter charges against the soldier for killing Aidan McAnespie at the Aughnacloy military checkpoint in 1988 were dropped two years later.
The director of public prosecutions in the region, Barra McGrory, has now ordered a re-examination of the decision.
The soldier at the centre of the controversy was fined for negligent discharge of his weapon and later medically discharged from the army.
McAnespie’s family have fought a long campaign to have the failure to prosecute reviewed. His brother Sean said they had new evidence.
“We knew the original decision was wrong,” he said. “The family would like to make a point to the British army that no one is above the law.”
His brother was shot dead after he crossed the border from County Monaghan in the Irish Republic into Northern Ireland on his way back from a Gaelic football match. The McAnespite family claimed the security forces in the border region had been harassing him constantly.
The soldier claimed his hands were wet and his finger slipped on the trigger of his heavy machine gun.
In 2008, a report by Historic Enquiries Team - the body tasked with investigating unsolved crimes during the Troubles - said the soldier’s description of events was the “least likely version” of what happened.
It concluded that the fatal shot had been fired from a distance of 283 metres. A year after the report the British government issued an apology and expressed its “deep regret” over McAnespie’s death.
