RELATIVES OF FOUR British soldiers killed in the 1982 Hyde Park bombing who won a High Court victory against a member of the IRA who was convicted for the blast are set to have the level of their damages award determined by a judge.
Family members of Royal Household Cavalrymen who died in the July 1982 attack brought the civil action against suspect John Downey after a criminal case collapsed at the Old Bailey in 2014.
A British High Court judge ruled last year that Downey was an “active participant” in the bombing and was jointly responsible with others for the attack, which left 31 other people injured.
At a remote High Court hearing in the UK starting today, due to last two days, Mr Justice Martin Spencer will consider how much compensation the families should be awarded.
Announcing her conclusions in December following a two-day trial, Mrs Justice Yip described the attack as “deliberate” and “carefully planned”.
“I have found that the defendant was an active participant in the concerted plan to detonate the bomb, with the intent to kill or at least to cause serious harm to members of the Household Cavalry,” she ruled.
Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, 36, Lieutenant Dennis Daly, 23, Trooper Simon Tipper, 19, and Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young, 19, were killed by a car bomb as they rode through the central London park to attend the Changing of the Guard.
Lawyers acting for Sarah Jane Young, Young’s daughter in whose name the action against Downey has been brought, previously told the High Court that the families of those killed expect “justice” to be done.
Downey, originally from Donegal, did not play any part in the trial but filed a written defence denying any involvement in the attack.
The car bomb left in South Carriage Drive killed the four soldiers as they paraded from their barracks to Buckingham Palace.
Two were killed instantly while Young and Bright died within days.
Seven horses had to be put down and another horse, Sefton, survived with injuries.
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