A NEW witness has come forward to attest to the innocence of a former soldier charged with the attempted murder of a young man during the Northern Ireland troubles.

Dennis Hutchings, from Cawsand, is due to stand trial for the alleged historical crime in March.

John Cunningham, 27, who had learning difficulties, died after a shot in the back as he ran away from an Army patrol near Benburb, County Tyrone, in 1974.

Mr Hutchings, who was with two of the men in his patrol unit at the time of the incident, has made the case it was never his intention to kill or injure Mr Cunningham, but that he was firing warning shots to get him to stop.

It was in 2015 that, following an investigation by the Northern Ireland police historic enquiries team, Mr Hutchings was arrested and charged with the attempted murder and another charge of attempted grievous bodily harm.

In 2019, a date for the trial was set for March 2021.

Mr Hutchings is angry that he will have to face a Diplock-style trial (where the judge alone decides the case to avoid the danger of a jury being intimated in terrorist-related cases) and wants it to be heard by jury: last year he appealed to the Supreme Court but was turned down.

The emergence of a new witness could have a profound impact on the turn of events to come. Dennis Hutchings says that both other witnesses present on June 15 1974 are now dead.

“We’re waiting to hear from the prosecution side, and what they want to do about it,” he said.

I’m coming up to six years of this, so I’m used to it, It’s great, if it’s accepted by the prosecution. It’ll be a great relief, to get it over and done with, but I’m not holding my breath.”

“This doesn’t just affect me. There are five cases currently going through the court and 231 cases still on the table waiting to be opened.”

Dennis says he estimates around 10% of the UK’s MPs are “on his side” in terms of wanting amnesty for former soldiers accused of committing crimes during the Northern Ireland conflict.

“Look, this has nothing to do with the law. It’s politics,” he said.

An Overseas Operations Bill making its way through Parliament aims to put a halt to prosecutions against troops and veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts - many of which have been described as “fraudulent or trivial” – but it offers no such protection to those who served in Northern Ireland. The think tank Royal United Services Institute says that this is in part because the Northern Ireland Office has insisted it would be damaging to the peace process if provisions of the Bill were extended to the Province.

Dennis, 79, suffers from several serious health conditions: he has COPD and has to have dialysis three times a week. He is due to become a great great grandfather in January.

But he says he will keep fighting to protest his innocence, “not just for me but for all the others”.

“Most of the time I don’t think about it between court cases but the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about it a lot, in fact I have been struggling to go to sleep.”

Dennis has received support from all over the country in recent days.

“Every day when you get messages and phone calls from people, it’s a massive help.”