Saville report expected by December
The long awaited Saville Inquiry report into the events of Bloody Sunday will be presented to the government by Christmas, UTV has learned.
The inquiry was established in 1998 by then Prime Minister Tony Blair to re-examine the events of January 30 1972, when British soldiers shot dead 14 people attending a civil rights march in Londonderry.
UTV’s Political Editor Ken Reid said: “A very senior source of the British Government has told me that they are expecting a report by Christmas.”
“That will be greeted with interest, particularly by the families of those who were killed.”
Mickey McKinney, whose brother William McKinney was one of the victims of Bloody Sunday, said he was waiting to see where the report puts the blame.
“We won’t really know until we see what Lord Saville has put in the report,” he told UTV.
“But I have no doubt that all our people will be declared innocent of the terrible allegations laid upon them 35 years ago.”
Eamonn McCann, Bloody Sunday Trust chairman, welcomed the news.
“It has been a long, long wait. If, as it would appear, we are getting fairly definite dates after half a dozen false alarms then I know the families will be pleased,” he said.
He said most of the mothers and fathers of the victims had died before seeing publication of the report.
“There will be a lot of relief but some apprehension as to what the report might contain but this is welcome news,” he added.
The tribunal has been chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, alongside two other judges from Australia and Canada.
Costing nearly £200m, The Bloody Sunday Inquiry is the most expensive inquiry in British legal history and lasted for five years with the first witness heard in November 2000, and the last in January 2005.
The tribunal received 2,500 witness statements, with 922 of these called to give direct evidence.
