Clonoe SAS killings ‘not justified’, inquest finds

AN inquest into the deaths of four Provisional IRA members shot dead by the SAS in the car park of a Clonoe church in 1992 has found that the killings were ‘not reasonably justified’ and were carried out with no plan or control in place.

In February 1992, Kevin Barry O’Donnell (21), Sean O’Farrell (23), Daniel Vincent (20), and Peter Clancy (19) were shot by SAS soldiers in the car park of St Patrick’s Church, minutes after they had carried out a gun attack on Coalisland RUC station.

The main focus of the hearing, which continued on Thursday at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast, is to determine whether or not members of the British Army specialist unit were justified in using lethal force during an ambush operation.

The inquest has found that, on the night in question, around 570 rounds were fired by the British Army, with no evidence that any shots were fired by any of the deceased at the scene.

Expert evidence was provided which indicated that, at the time of their deaths, the deceased were either kneeling, crouching, or attempting to flee from the scene, and not posing any threat to the soldiers who were supposed to arrest the men.

The inquest has concluded that upon giving evidence in the aftermath of the attack, only one of the 12 British soldiers involved mentioned a plan to arrest the men.

The soldier in question, who has been referred to as ‘Soldier H’, did not give evidence throughout the inquest.

It was also heard that seven of the soldiers involved admitted to shooting at vehicles and witnesses who attempted to flee the car park on the night, with the Coroner further highlighting that there was no evidence of any attempts to carry out any arrests on the night.

The findings of the inquest are provisional and will remain so until February 20 when they are made final and the Coroner formally closes in the inquest.