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NI: Marines acquitted

01 January 1994

On 23rd December 1993, Royal Marines lance corporal Richard Elkington and Andrew Callaghan, were acquitted by Lord Chief Justice Brian Hutton of murdering Fergal Caraher and wounding his brother Micel while on duty at a check point in South Armagh in December 1990. Relatives of the victims had organised their own inquiry (chaired by Michael Mansfield) into the killings because of the failure of the authorities to act on the evidence of eye witnesses (see Statewatch vol 1, no 4, 1991). Hutton's judgement cast doubt on the evidence of both the soldiers and local people. The accounts of the latter were unreliable according to Hutton because the local people were "hostile to the army". As CAJ wryly commented, seeing ones neighbours shot does engender a degree of hostility (Just News, vol 9 no 1). Following the acquittal, Fergal Caraher's widow Margaret said, "we feel disappointed but not surprised. It was what we have come to expect from the judicial system in the North of Ireland" (Irish News 24.12.93; An Phoblacht 29.12.93; Guardian 24.12.93).

The acquittal of the marines came a month after the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute an RUC officer who shot dead unarmed IRA volunteer Pearse Jordan on the Falls Road, Belfast in November 1992. Two armoured cars rammed the hijacked car in which Jordan was travelling. As he staggered out of the car, he was shot in the back. The killing was investigated by the Independent Commission for Police Complaints (Irish News, 23.11.93).

On 25 January 1994, RUC Constable Timothy Hanley was acquitted of murdering student Kevin McGovern who was shot in the back while on his way to a disco with two friends on 29 September, 1991. Hanley admitted the shooting but Justice Nicholson described his action as a tragic error of judgement. The judge cited seven reasons for his verdict which rested on Hanley's defence that he believed McGovern was a fleeing IRA man (Irish News 26.1.94).