THE MURDER INVESTIGATION into Bloody Sunday will recommence next week.

The PSNI has confirmed that a team of twelve detectives will be assigned to the senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison on Monday.

It comes after the families of those murdered on Bloody Sunday challenged a decision to delay an inquiry into the incident.

The PSNI said the inquiry was delayed because of budget cuts at the police service.

Peter Madden – of Madden & Finucane Solicitors – who represents the families of those killed on Bloody Sunday, and the wounded, said:

We have engaged in extensive and detailed correspondence with the PSNI, challenging the legality of its decisions and decision making process, and as a direct consequence of issuing proceedings the PSNI has now decided to recommence the investigation.

Madden added that the development was welcomed ‘cautiously’.

“We will be meeting with DCI Harrison shortly in order to seek assurances in relation to the police’s commitment to seeing this investigation through to a successful conclusion, and in particular that this investigation will be adequately resourced to enable it do so and to restore public confidence.”

On 30 January 1972, 13 Catholic civil rights marchers were shot dead by British soldiers in Derry. Another man died from his injuries four months later. Several more were injured.

In 2010, following a 12-year inquiry, Lord Saville published his report into the shooting. He called the killings “unjustified and unjustifiable”. In July 2012, the PSNI said it would launch its own investigation into the deaths.

Read: Families of Bloody Sunday victims launch legal challenge over ‘end of murder investigation’>