Four members of Household Cavalry died in 1982 IRA Hyde Park bombings

A MAN from Co Donegal has been charged with the murders of four soldiers in a no-warning IRA car bomb attack near London’s Hyde Park in 1982.

John Anthony Downey was arrested by detectives at Gatwick Airport on Sunday.

Scotland Yard has confirmed that the 61-year-old stands accused of being responsible for the bomb attack which killed the four members of the Royal Household Cavalry.

They had been travelling from their barracks to Buckingham Palace at the time of the blast.

“The Metropolitan Police Service has been investigating the explosion near Hyde Park in London which occurred on 20 July 1982,” Sue Hemming, head of special crime and counter-terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, said.

“We have reviewed the evidence gathered and authorised them to charge John Anthony Downey.

“It is alleged that Downey is responsible for the improvised explosive device contained in a car parked in South Carriage Drive, SW1, London.

“Downey has been charged with the murders of Roy John Bright, Dennis Richard Anthony Daly, Simon Andrew Tipper and Geoffrey Vernon Young.

“He has also been charged with intending to cause an explosion likely to endanger life contrary to Section 3 of the Explosive Substances Act 1883.”

Downey is due to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday afternoon.

In 1987, Danny McNamee was sentenced to 25 years for the Hyde Park bomb despite McNamee pleading that he was innocent.

In 1998, shortly after his release under the Good Friday Agreement, a judge overturned his conviction, deeming it “unsafe” because of withheld fingerprint evidence that implicated other bomb-makers.