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03/10/2018
Jim Allister Challenges PM Over Compensation
TUV leader Jim Allister has written to the Prime Minister in relation to the contrast in compensation for victims of terrorism in Northern Ireland.
Mr Allister's letter follows Monday's high court decision that Ita McKinney, the widow of a man shot dead by a soldier on Bloody Sunday would receive £625,000 in damages, after her legal action against the state regarding her husband's murder in L'Derry in January 1972.
The settlement, wrote Mr Allister, "stirred understandable questions" among families of policemen and others murdered by terrorists at a similar time.
His letter to Theresa May states: "Among those in touch with me is a police widow whose husband was murdered in 1975, leaving her with a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old and another child on the way.
"She got £1000 in criminal injury compensation ... The disparity is as obvious as it is shocking."
Mr Allister explained that the widow he refers to also received a police pension which she then lost upon remarriage, until he secured a change in the law to restore such pensions.
Continuing to highlight the difference in relation to compensation, Mr Allister said: "Recent events must refocus attention on how the state compensated police and UDR widows in comparison with how the same state is now compensating Bloody Sunday relatives.
"There is a deficit to be made up to those who lost their lives serving the state."
(JG/MH)
Mr Allister's letter follows Monday's high court decision that Ita McKinney, the widow of a man shot dead by a soldier on Bloody Sunday would receive £625,000 in damages, after her legal action against the state regarding her husband's murder in L'Derry in January 1972.
The settlement, wrote Mr Allister, "stirred understandable questions" among families of policemen and others murdered by terrorists at a similar time.
His letter to Theresa May states: "Among those in touch with me is a police widow whose husband was murdered in 1975, leaving her with a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old and another child on the way.
"She got £1000 in criminal injury compensation ... The disparity is as obvious as it is shocking."
Mr Allister explained that the widow he refers to also received a police pension which she then lost upon remarriage, until he secured a change in the law to restore such pensions.
Continuing to highlight the difference in relation to compensation, Mr Allister said: "Recent events must refocus attention on how the state compensated police and UDR widows in comparison with how the same state is now compensating Bloody Sunday relatives.
"There is a deficit to be made up to those who lost their lives serving the state."
(JG/MH)
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