A former Australian judge has been appointed as a member of the Bloody Sunday Tribunal. The Northern Secretary, Peter Mandelson, announced today that Mr John Toohey will succeed Sir Edward Somers, who resigned from the Tribunal on July 31 this year.
The Tribunal hearings will resume in Derry at 10.00am on November 13 the inquiry later confirmed. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry was established in 1998 to examine the deaths of 13 men during a British Army Paratroop Regiment operation in the city's Bogside in January 1972. It has been sitting in public in Derry's Guildhall since March 27, and was to have resumed this week, but proceedings were put back after the former New Zealand judge resigned, citing personal reasons.
Lord Saville, Chairman of the Tribunal, said that he and fellow member, Canadian ex-judge William Hoyt, met Mr Toohey in Perth last week to discuss the inquiry with him. He said that he and Mr Hoyt are very much looking forward to working with him. Mr Toohey, who is married with five daughters and two sons, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1987 to 1998.
