Aidan McAnespie, David Holden, Sentence, 2023, British Soldier, Aughnacloy, Northern Ireland
Summary
I have remained Silent on the charging of David Holden in relation to the shooting of Aidan McAnespie. I have remained Silent, because I knew Aidan McAnespie better than most. I have watched many exploit Aidan's death for their own purposes, I have watched the Informers who placed his name on a Terrorist Watch List walk behind his coffin and others jockey for position in front of the media when they should bury their heads in shame.
Vincent McKenna, Autobiography
The charging, conviction and sentencing of David Holden achieves nothing, the truth has not been told, only David Holden knows what he done that day. However, David Holden was an 18-year-old provided with information about certain individuals, some of that information was correct, some of it was lies.
Update: 2 February, 2023, David Holden was given a 3-year suspended sentence for shooting Aidan McAnespie.
A young soldier told that a person within his sight is a Terrorist, is a strong motivator to point a gun, and whether reckless or intentional, pull the trigger.
Aidan McAnespie was not a Terrorist and I challenge anyone to show me any operation he was involved in, I would be amazed if such evidence exists.
Aidan McAnespie was placed in David Holden's sights by Sinn Fein/PIRA Informers, some of whom are still alive and known.
Aidan McAnespie Shooting 1988
Aidan McAnespie was shot dead
in February, 1988, at the British Army/RUC Check-point at Aughnacloy, County
Tyrone. Following years of campaigning by the McAnespie Family, a former
Grenadier Guardsman David Jonathan Holden (53) has been convicted of
manslaughter and will be sentenced 2 February, 2023.
While the McAnespie family
have called for the ‘Legacy Bill’ to be dropped, it is no secret that several
members of the McAnespie Family support Sinn Fein/PIRA who have been lobbying
the British Government for decades for a Full-Amnesty.
During the Sinn Fein/PIRA
cease-fire of 1975, the Sinn Fein/PIRA Leadership demanded a full-Amnesty and ‘special
arrangements’ for those Sinn Fein/PIRA On-the-Run if the cease-fire and
possible ‘peace-talks’ were to be sustained.
You do not have to take my
word for this, you can read ‘Exiled’ by Sinn Fein/PIRA member, Tommy McNulty who,
with Barry McHugh, was in charge of the ‘incident centre’ in Dungannon during
the 1975 cease-fire.
While the Sinn Fein/PIRA
Leadership continue to speak out both sides of their mouth about the ‘Legacy
Bill’ the fact remains that their most senior members including Provisional IRA
Chief of Staff, Kevin McKenna, was granted a full Amnesty, when there was amble
evidence to charge him with multiple murders, including Columba McVeigh and Cormac McCabe.
I had in 1998, provided The Northern Ireland Office with a full list of Sinn Fein/PIRA On-the-Runs to be granted Comfort Letters, and I had received this information from Joe Cahill whom I had known since the early 1980s.
I was called a liar by Sinn Fein/PIRA and their
Political Handlers in London, we now know that hundreds of Comfort Letters were
issued and serial killers such as Hyde Park Bomber, John Downey could not be
Prosecuted when he produced his Get-Out-of-Jail-FREE-Card.
Aidan McAnespie
When I left school in 1980, I immediately
moved to Monaghan Town and secured work as a general laborer in Monaghan
Poultry Products. My life-long friend and school mate, Aidan McAnespie, called
to my mother’s house while I was visiting in Aughnacloy, and the conversation
was as follows.
Aidan, “I heard you got a job
in Monaghan Poultry Products, could you get me a job?”
Vincent, “How would you get up
and down to Monaghan each day?”
Aidan, “Dermot Muldoon is also
looking for a job and he has a car”.
Vincent, “Ok, I get on well
with the Foreman, Tommy Ward, and I will do my best to get both of you a job”.
One week later, I was able to start Aidan McAnespie and Dermot Muldoon in Monaghan Poultry Products. Aidan was like myself a good worker who was prepared to put in the hours.
Soon after
starting work Aidan was able to buy himself a 125 Yamaha and become independent
for getting to and from work.
In 1984, I was facing
extradition and this was disrupting my work to such a point that I secured my
job as Hygiene Supervisor for Aidan and I left the job and moved to Dublin where
I was finally extradited back to Northern Ireland from The High Court.
In 1985, I was released from
custody in Northern Ireland after the RUC had charged me with matters that had
not been part of the extradition process and the more serious charges were
dropped.
I continued to be involved
with Sinn Fein/PIRA and I was fully aware of everyone involved with Sinn
Fein/PIRA in Monaghan/Tyrone. In the 1980s the numbers involved with Sinn
Fein/PIRA were very small.
I was constantly talking to
Aidan McAnespie and I was aware that his sister Elish was a candidate for Sinn
Fein/PIRA in Tyrone. At no time was Aidan a member of The Provisional IRA, in
fact, if he had tried, I would have objected, as he was the only son of four
still at home with his mother and father.
Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA Informers
In 1986, I was arrested by the
RUC under a 7-Day Detention Order, I was being falsely accused of being
involved in the cowardly attempted murdered of Robert John Murray outside
Aughnacloy in 1984, I had no hand of part in this attack, which left Robert
John seriously injured and his wife and baby hurt when their car rolled into a
field when Robert was shot.
During my Interrogation, I was
shown statements by two Sinn Fein/PIRA Informers, one from Aughnacloy and the
other from Monaghan Town. Both informers had named Aidan McAnespie and other
members of his family as being members of The Provisional IRA.
One of these Informers later
died in a car accident and had a tri-colour placed on his coffin by those
seeking ‘Justice’ for Aidan McAnespie, such is the perversity of Sinn
Fein/PIRA.
It was Sinn Fein/PIRA
Informers who provided the RUC with false information about Aidan McAnespie
that seen Aidan’s name placed on a Terrorist Watch List, and why Aidan became
of interest to various British Army Regiments based at Aughnacloy.
I was also on the Terrorist
Watch List; however, I belonged on the Terrorist Watch List, Aidan did not.
Aghaloo GAA
It is well known that I was back in Aughnacloy training and playing with Aghaloo GAA between 1986-88, I had been told to do so by Jim Lynagh as I acted as his PIRA Intelligence Officer.
After Jim Lynagh was killed at Loughgall in May, 1987, I continued to go to
Aughnacloy as I was working with another member of Monaghan/East Tyrone PIRA.
On the day that Aidan was shot
dead, I was supposed to travel to Aughnacloy for the same game that Aidan was
walking to, however, I had told two relatives to leave Monaghan without me as I
had been asked to do the lights at a drama in St Macartan’s Hall by my
Mother-in-Law at that time.
Soon after leaving my house my
two relatives returned to tell me that Aidan had been shot dead. I was simply
in shock, I was not surprised that such a violent incident had happened,
however, I would have preferred it was me rather than Aidan, a nicer lad you
could not meet, and those who used him in life and death should feel nothing
but shame.
I had given numerous warnings
to The Irish Government that someone was going to be shot at the checkpoint in
Aughnacloy, but nothing changed, mainly because Sinn Fein/PIRA Informers were
naming innocent people as being Provisional IRA.
Shooting Aidan McAnespie
By any standard David Holden
was Guilty of Gross Negligence. I had been up close to the British Army for
many years when I was a child, I remember the diligence they showed when
handling their weapons.
I remember the army coming
back from foot-patrol and each in turn would point their gun at the low-level
sandbags and insure there was no bullet in the barrel, so that accidents could
not occur.
Only David Holden knows the
truth of what happened that day, his explanation seemed extraordinary, although
that would not be unusual in Northern Ireland.
The Trial Judge found that
David Holden had pointed his gun at Aidan McAnespie and pulled the trigger, believing
that the gun was not cocked, this appears closer to the truth.
I had spoken to two soldiers
many years later in Belfast and they told me how they had shot dead a dog
belonging to a PIRA member in Derry, when that PIRA member was walking his dog,
the shooting was intentional, although officially they claimed it was an
accidental discharge from a watch-tower.
David Holden, who was aged 18
at the time when he shot Aidan McAnespie, David Holden was originally charged
with manslaughter in 1988 but this was later dropped.
Former Grenadier Guardsman David Holden Sentencing
Former Grenadier Guardsman
David Holden Sentencing will take place on the 2 February, 2023, whatever the sentence
he will only serve 18-months in prison if given a custodial sentence, due to
the terms of The Good Friday Agreement from which both Terrorists and British Military
benefit.
Before hearing the pleas from
both sides, the Judge told the court, “There are a number of issues that I have
to consider”, he would not pass sentence today but on the 2 February, 2023.
The sentencing of David Holden
will take place as the British government's ‘Legacy Bill’, dubbed the 'Bill of
Shame' by some opponents, continues to make its way through the House of Lords.
Darragh Mackin, Phoenix Law
The McAnespie family's
solicitor Darragh Mackin, of Phoenix Law, said: "(This hearing) signifies
closure in what has been, almost 35 years, of a hard-fought campaign for
justice by the McAnespie family.
"This case is the
personification as to why there can never be any amnesty for crimes committed.
"Despite the passage of
time, justice can be done, and can be seen to be done."
In a letter this week 27
members of the US Congress claimed the draft legislation would “deny justice to
thousands of families” and “conceal the truth of the past”.
Last week the UN High
Commissioner for Human Right, Volker Turk, said the bill, as it stands, appears
to be incompatible with the Britain's international human rights obligations.
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