The World - News from June 26, 1989

A young British soldier once accused of killing an unarmed civilian at a Northern Ireland border checkpoint has returned to duty after being fined by the military, the British army said. Pvt. David Jonathan Holden was 18 when Aiden McAnespie, 23, was shot in the back in 1988 as he walked past a checkpoint. McAnespie worked for Sinn Fein, the legal political wing of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, which is fighting to drive the British out of the province. The army said a heavy machine gun slipped in Holden’s wet hands after it had been cleaned and went off by accident. Holden was charged with manslaughter, but the charge was later dropped.