Blood Sunday: Peggy Deery's family awarded £267,000
- Published
Thirteen people were killed and 15 wounded on Bloody Sunday
The family of the only woman shot on Bloody Sunday is to receive almost £270,000 in damages.
Peggy Deery, who was 38 at the time, was shot in the leg when paratroopers opened fire in Londonderry in January 1972.
Mrs Deery, a widowed mother-of-14, died from a heart attack in 1988.
The High Court judgement includes compensation for her injuries and for the subsequent years of mental distress.
Thirteen unarmed people were killed by soldiers during a civil rights demonstration in the city, which became known as Bloody Sunday.
Mr Justice McAlinden described the behaviour of the soldiers who wounded and verbally abused Mrs Deery as "imbued with a degree of malevolence and flagrancy which was truly exceptional".
He said Mrs Deery was a woman of good character who attended the civil rights march in support of a society based on fairness and equality.
Mrs Deery's family had sued the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the injuries they claim contributed to her death.
With liability accepted, the case centred on a dispute over the appropriate level of damages.
Counsel for the family argued that the paratrooper who shot her probably knew she posed no threat.
Soldiers on the ground in Derry in January 1972
The court was told after being shot Mrs Deery was carried into a house on Chamberlain Street to be treated by members of the Knights of Malta.
The court heard soldiers then entered the property and allegedly directed foul language at the widow.
Mrs Deery, who lost her husband to cancer months before Bloody Sunday, spent four months in hospital, developed a chronic kidney disease and was effectively housebound for the rest of her life, the court heard.
Her daughter Helen Deery told the court how they carried out cooking and cleaning duties in a house with no central heating or washing machine.
"We had to do everything," she said.
'Innocent demonstrator'
A barrister representing the MoD argued her heart problems were probably due to a heavy smoking habit of 40 cigarettes a day.
In judgement, Mr Justice McAlinden said: "Any claim that she was anything other than an innocent demonstrator was a fabrication constructed and perpetuated by the perpetrator or perpetrators of a wrong in an attempt to avoid personal or collective responsibility for any wrongdoing".
Awarding £250,000 to Mrs Deery's estate, the judge added a further £17,028 in special damages for the cost of care provided to her.
"This will take into account the mental distress which she undoubtedly suffered by reason of the approach adopted by the defendant to those killed and injured during Bloody Sunday in the period between the end of January 1972 and the date of the deceased's death in January 1988", he added.
Derry's Guildhall Square was packed for David Cameron's apology on behalf of the state in 2010
He said because Mrs Deery died before the Saville Inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday, the "cloud of imputed culpability would, at least to some extent, have cast an intermittent shadow over her".
In 2010 the Saville Inquiry into the shootings established the innocence of all of the victims.
Those findings led to David Cameron, the then British prime minister, issuing a public apology for the soldiers' actions.
He described the killings as "unjustified and unjustifiable".
The Deery family's solicitor Fearghal Shiels said the judgement was vindication of Mrs Deery's innocence.
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