June 22 1974
Commenting on the release of Corporal Foxford by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association said: “Today’s decision is yet further evidence that there is one law for members of the security forces and another for the civilian population.”
A conviction and three-year prison sentence imposed at Belfast City Commission in March on Lance Corporal Francis William Foxford, a 22-year-old member of the Hampshire Regiment, on a charge of unlawfully killing 12-year-old Kevin Heatley, of Newry, was quashed by the court.
Foxford, a native of Salford, Manchester, who had been on bail pending appeal, left the court a free man.
The association said that all fair-minded people would be justified in believing that the Northern Ireland courts were prepared to grant “virtual immunity to members of the security forces accused of killing civilians”.
They criticised the grounds for the ruling, which was based on the discovery of irregularities in the case, and said the Crown had “only preferred manslaughter charges following a widespread public outcry”.
Kevin Heatley’s mother also reacted angrily yesterday to the news that Corporal Foxford had had his appeal upheld.
“It is a shame and disgrace that the soldiers who killed my son should have got off scot-free. Where is the law and the justice?” asked 38-year-old Mrs Kathleen Heatley in her home at the Derrybeg estate, Newry.
“No person is safe now, for the British troops have been given a licence to kill. They can shoot any child on the street and will never have to pay for it,” she added.
Mrs Heatley said she would not have cared how short the sentence imposed might have been so long as justice was seen to be done.
She recalled that the judge who had imposed the three-year sentence on Corporal Foxford had accused military witnesses of telling lies out of loyalty to their comrade.
Mrs Heatley, who has seven other children ranging in age from two to 20 years, in conclusion, accused the British press and television of making a hero out of Corporal Foxford after he had been sentenced, while ignoring her, whose young son had been shot dead without provocation.
