Carmen Proetta (born 24 September 1947 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) is a

Gibraltarian The Gibraltarians (Spanish: ''gibraltareños'', colloquially: '' llanitos'') are an ethnic group native to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance to the Mediterran ...

who was an independent witness to Operation Flavius, a controversial

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

operation in which the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

shot dead three unarmed

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

members in

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

on 6 March 1988. She became the subject of a number of articles by several British newspapers, which later paid her substantial damages in an out-of-court settlement. Proetta had given a statement to the police, saying that she was washing dishes when she looked out her kitchen window and witnessed the killings. According to her account, two of the three West

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

suspects,

Mairead Farrell Mairead, Máiréad or Mairéad, is a feminine name and the Irish variation of the given name Margaret, which is believed to mean "pearl". Another spelling variation is Maighread, which is the dominant Scottish Gaelic spelling of the name. It may r ...

and

Dan McCann Daniel McCann (30 November 1957 – 6 March 1988) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who was murdered by the British Army on 6 March 1988 whilst being accused of attempting to plant a car bomb in Gibraltar. Early ...

, had their hands in the air when they were shot without warning. Her claims were made public a month later in an interview for the

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

documentary ''

Death on the Rock "Death on the Rock" was a British television documentary, part of Thames Television's current affairs series '' This Week''. It was broadcast in 1988. The programme examined the deaths of three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members in ...

''. In her interview she said "They ecurity forcesdidn't do anything... they just went and shot these people. That's all. They didn't say anything, they didn't scream, they didn't shout, they didn't do anything. These people were turning their heads back to see what was happening and when they saw these men had guns in their hands they put their hands up. It looked like the man was protecting the girl because he stood in front of her, but there was no chance. I mean they went to the floor immediately, they dropped." After the programme was broadcast, several British newspapers, including '' The Sun'' and ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' ran stories about her background. ''The Sun'' ran a headline labelling her 'The tart of Gib'. Its front-page story accused her of being a former prostitute, of running an escort agency and of being 'anti-British'. ''The Sunday Times'' interviewed the same witnesses after the broadcast. A ''Sunday Times'' journalist involved, Rosie Waterhouse, resigned not long afterwards. In a letter to the ''

Press Gazette ''Press Gazette'', formerly known as ''UK Press Gazette'' (UKPG), is a British media trade magazine dedicated to journalism and the press. First published in 1965, it had a circulation of about 2,500, before becoming online-only in 2013. Publis ...

'' published in January 1989, Waterhouse wrote that her copy had been altered with the effect of discrediting Proetta's evidence. All of the accusations were later shown to be false. Proetta launched a libel action case against five of the newspapers and was subsequently awarded an estimated £300,000 damages in an out-of-court settlement.
Notes substantial damages in relation to erroneous claims in ''The Sun''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proetta, Carmen Gibraltarians Living people 1947 births

See also

References