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`Shoot-to-kill' inquest

01 January 1991

`Shoot-to-kill' inquest
artdoc August=1992

An inquest resumed on 5 May into the deaths of three men killed
by the RUC Special Branch's undercover surveillance unit E4A on
11 November 1982. The families of two of the men, Eugene Toman
and Sean Burns, are refusing to attend the inquest which is being
resumed before coroner John Leckey, the fifth coroner to be
involved in the inquest to date. The killings formed part of the
investigation into shoot-to-kill allegations carried out by John
Stalker. In 1984, three police officers were acquitted of
murdering Burns, Toman and McKerr by Justice Gibson who praised
the police for bringing the three victims to `the final court of
justice', a comment which caused outrage at the time. Gibson and
his wife were later killed by the IRA on the border at Killeen
while returning home from a holiday in France. In 1988, Secretary
of State Sir Patrick Mayhew - then Attorney General - ruled that,
while there was evidence of attempts to pervert the course of
justice, police officers would not be prosecuted on grounds of
`national security'. At the renewed hearing, the coroner has
ruled that the Public Interest Immunity Certificate issued by the
then Secretary of State Tom King in 1988 to prevent details of
the RUC operation being revealed at the inquest, was technically
invalid as King had not read any of the relevant documentation.
After continuing legal arguments over the release of police
documents, the inquest has been adjourned until September.
Coroner Leckey also presided over the inquest into the death
of UVF member, Brian Robinson, who was shot dead in 1989 by
undercover soldiers belonging to 14 Intelligence Company. The
findings of the inquest suggest that Robinson could have been
arrested. The DPP has been asked by the Committee on the
Administration of Justice to reconsider his decision not to
prosecute the soldiers involved.

Statewatch vol 2 no 4, July/August 1992