A 70-year-old retired Australian high court judge has been appointed to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry to replace the New Zealand judge, Sir Edward Somers (71). Sir Edward resigned from the three-strong panel of judges last month.
Mr John Toohey, who is married with five daughters and two sons, takes up his appointment on the high-profile and controversial tribunal with immediate effect.
The inquiry, which was due to restart last Monday, will now resume on November 13th with the hearing of oral evidence. One of the elder statesmen of Australia's legal system, Mr Toohey was visited at his home in Perth last week by the inquiry's chairman, Lord Saville, and his colleague, Justice William Hoyt.
"Bill Hoyt and I are very much looking forward to working with him," Lord Saville said yesterday. "Mr Toohey's long and distinguished record in the service of justice in Australia will be an asset to the challenging work of the tribunal, and he is a most welcome addition to our team."
The inquiry, which has another two years to run, is set to enter its most crucial phase in November when it hears oral evidence about the January 1972 killings of 13 men by paratroopers in the Bogside area of Derry. Mr Greg McCartney, solicitor for the family of one of the victims, Mr James Wray, said his clients welcomed Mr Toohey's appointment.
"We have his history on paper, but that does not give us any insight into his thinkings or abilities and whether he has any proven track record on human rights issues," he said.
"This is probably one of the most important human rights issues ever before the courts here, and obviously it's important that those who are coming into an inquiry of this nature must have a record in human rights which will enable them to grapple with the issues that are in contention.
"We know nothing about how Mr Toohey was appointed, but we are fairly confident that he would have been vetted by the British government through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office."
Mr John Kelly, spokesman for the Bloody Sunday families, said the new appointee would have to familiarise himself with Bloody Sunday quickly.
"He has got about nine weeks to work on the background material. It is a mammoth task and we hope that he has both the vigour and the energy to continue with the inquiry. We hope he will view it as a human rights issue and that he will be a judge who will look at the issues fairly and reach a truthful conclusion," he said.