Coroner rules use of force in Coagh killings was ‘justified’

By Alan Rodgers

A CORONER has found that the killings of three members of an East Tyrone IRA  Active Service Unit in Coagh more than 30 years ago was justified.

The Provisional Findings at the Inquest into the deaths of Peter Ryan, Tony Doris and Lawrence McNally on June 3, 1991, were delivered by Mr Justice Michael Humphreys at the Coroners Court sitting in Belfast. He took more than two hours to deliver the ruling, which ran to more than 7000 words.

The shootings took place at a time when there was a widespread belief in a so-called ‘shoot to kill’ approach by the British Army in the north.

Evidence at the Inquests had been heard from soldiers involved in the shootings, eye-witnesses and experts. The Coroner’s Court had heard that intelligence found that an IRA unit was to target a former UDR soldier in the village.

This intelligence resulted in the operation which resulted in the killings of the three men.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Humphreys said that the use of lethal force by the soldiers was justified. He added that the shootings had began when one of the three IRA volunteers had got out of a Vauxhall Cavalier car which had been hijacked in the village of Loup.

Mr Justice Humphreys said he was satisfied the pointing of a rifle at a soldier who was substituting for the real target represented an immediate threat to the life of that person.

He added that there was no opportunity to challenge or give a warning to the IRA volunteers because to have done so would have increased the risk to life.

He concluded that the force used was reasonable and proportionate to the threat to life which was present, and that there was no alternative or reduced level of force which would have served to eliminate or mitigate the threat to life.

“In each case the use of lethal force was justified as the soldiers had an honest belief that it eas necessary in order to prevent loss of life,” Mr Justice Humphreys said.

“The use of roce by the soldiers was, in the circumstances they believed them to be, reasonable.

“The operation was not planned and controlled in such a way as to minimise to the greatest extent possible the need for recourse to lethal force.”

Members of the families of the three IRA men attended the hearing.