Former IRA prisoner, Ronnie McCartney (represented by James Wood QC and Steven Powles) who served 20 years in prison between 1976 and 1996 for shooting at police when being part of an IRA unit based in Southampton has been acquitted of conspiracy to blackmail.

McCartney had been a stalwart of reconciliation and the peace process, long before it became part of Sinn Fein policy, and long before his eventual release on licence in 1996.

His defence to having admittedly sent letters and made phone calls demanding £150,000 on behalf of the IRA was that this was a well-meant but foolish ploy to force the involvement of the republican movement in the resolution of a prolonged and hostile dispute involving fellow republicans, which had the potential to damage and derail the ongoing peace process.

TV films in which Ronnie himself had appeared were played to the jury. These featured Desmond Tutu and victims and perpetrators of violence on both sides of the political divide. Witnesses called for his defence included the police officer whom he had shot in Southampton in 1974, two members of the Birmingham Six, who had known Ronnie in prison, ex-prisoners from different sides of the political divide and academics involved in truth and reconciliation work, all of whom had worked with Ronnie on reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

McCartney was acquitted when the prosecution offered no further evidence after a re-trial jury had again failed to agree verdicts.