Soldier F has been found not guilty, but it is an outrage that a man now in his seventies — who served this country with the utmost distinction — was being hung out to dry for decisions ultimately made by his superiors.

I say this as someone who served alongside him as a paratrooper.

Soldier F was a disciplined corporal who had a glittering career ahead of him, and he was a far cry from the cold-blooded assassin propagandists would have us believe.

Were it not for the brave ruling of Judge Patrick Lynch KC, he would have been the latest victim in what is fast becoming a Labour-backed open season against British veterans of Northern Ireland.

Attorney General Lord Hermer, who, as a human rights lawyer, once represented Gerry Adams, has led the charge, opening the door to yet more soldier prosecutions by repealing the Northern Ireland Legacy Act. His actions, though, are only in keeping with the policy Tony Blair put in place to appease the IRA.

On their shopping list for peace were amnesties for their crimes, the scrapping of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Special Branch, and a new inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday. The IRA got it all.

We know from the 12-year Saville Inquiry, which cost upwards of £300million, that on the fateful January day in 1972, an IRA member fired on the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment – or 1 Para – while another had nail bombs in his possession. It is, of course, possible that despite his training, Soldier F somehow lost his head amid that highly charged demonstration against state internment of IRA suspects, but I find that unlikely. No British soldier goes out into the streets of our own country with killing on their mind.

And yet it is vital to understand that the Paras are one of the most aggressive units in the British Army and are trained to react with extreme violence when necessary.

Indeed, a line in a book by an Argentinian army Falklands veteran will always stay with me: ‘We feared the Marines and the Gurkhas but were absolutely terrified of the Paras... I never knew anyone could be so aggressive.’

Amid a tinderbox atmosphere in Londonderry, in an enclosed urban setting, when soldiers suspect that every person in their sights is armed, it was perhaps inevitable that violence would follow.

Tragically, innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire and died. Mistakes were clearly made, but I believe they were honest mistakes made in the heat of the moment. The bigger question is why such a unit was in charge of policing the illegal march in the first place.

Whose decision was it to place them there, and why have they not been dragged through the courts to answer for their actions in the way that Soldier F has?

This witch hunt, which has bedevilled several decades of his life, should be the last. We must draw a line under this whole sorry mess, bringing to an end the grievance industry that has sprung up in Northern Ireland.

It won’t be easy, as it is a lucrative line of work for lawyers, with predominantly republican political activists pushing for public inquiries, cold-case investigations, and expensive prosecutions that are bleeding the British taxpayer of millions of pounds.

A law must be passed imposing a statute of limitations on all events prior to the Good Friday Agreement. Case closed.

That way, British troops such as Soldier F, who were never anything other than pawns, can rest easy. And Westminster can stop dancing to the IRA’s tune.

*Harry McCallion is a former member of the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment, 22 SAS and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. He is a barrister at law and author of Undercover War. This article first appeared in the Daily Mail, which has been campaigning to stop the SAS betrayal.

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