Back on topic. The charges that have been brought against Soldiers A and C will be tried in due course in a Criminal Court of Law. A large part of that law is precedent, the relevant one in the forthcoming case will concern a certain Lee Clegg, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993 for shooting two "joy riders" who crashed through a vehicle check point in September 1990. He appealed his conviction and was released on licence in 1995 having spent four years in custody. He was cleared at his retrial in 1998. It took him a further two years to be cleared of a lesser charge and he is currently seeking £400,000 compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

The police in Northern Ireland have always been armed and during the period known and commonly referred to as "the Troubles" police patrols and check points were supported by armed soldiers. You do not put armed security officers on the street without first giving them the authority under given circumstances to use those weapons. The incident happened in April 1972, so if it is accepted that there was a "Shoot-to-kill" policy in operation for known members of paramilitaries then that is how the ROE must be viewed as should the fact that it was not just an RUC/Army check that McCann ran from but one consisting of RUC Special Branch and British Troops specifically put in place to arrest him as the result of a tip off. It is also equally obvious that people who do stupid things and take foolish risks in such dangerous situations and circumstances basically deserve Darwin Awards and must accept the consequences for their own actions.