Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Laurence Robertson and Sheryll Murray(3 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)
Historic Allegations against Veterans
Debate between Laurence Robertson and Sheryll Murray(6 years, 7 months ago)
Westminster HallRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)
I will start by reading a message from another of my constituents, a Mr Dennis Blagdon. He wrote to me this weekend:
“I feel ashamed to be British that the government would let this serious lack of justice happen”
to Dennis Hutchings. Mr Blagdon continued:
“He is a man who is ill, who is being hounded for a job which he was employed by the government at the time to do. It was war.”
We cannot put it any simpler than that. Northern Ireland was war. Mr Blagdon added that,
“a shot was fired which, unfortunately, killed a person. TO THIS DAY, NO ONE KNOWS WHO FIRED THAT FATEFUL SHOT. Why should this poor man, who is dying, be held responsible? This guy is a lovely man, who I have met on many occasions. Please just let him live his last days in peace.”
Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
Has my hon. Friend not put her finger on the very problem—that one side, the IRA, called it a war and behaved as if it were a war, whereas the soldiers were expected to work by the book?
Mrs Murray
My hon. Friend is quite right.
I will not take much time to repeat what has already been said, but the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland was originally formed from the Northern Ireland Office and the Ministry of Justice. We do not have an Executive in Northern Ireland at the moment. I am calling on the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to address this immediately by announcing the consultation paper. As far as I am concerned, my constituent, Dennis Hutchings, has suffered enough. I have been informed that he has been cleared twice and, to be honest, the evidence has since been destroyed—evidence that he could have used in his defence. I agree with the Government when they say that the current process is flawed, and I call on them to do something about it and let Dennis Hutchings, my constituent, go free now. He is a hero who did his job. Let him go free.