[net.legal] Northern Ireland Coroner Quits Over Killings by RUC

jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (09/19/84)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

	In August 1984 the coroner for the Northern Ireland districts of
Armagh and Craigavon, Gerard Curran, announced in court his resignation
from his office. The resignation was apparently caused by official obstruction
of justice by the government district prosecutor and the RUC (Royal Ulster
Constabulary) in the case of the killing by the RUC of a teenage boy, Roddy
Carroll, and a man, Seamus Grew, at a roadside checkpoint. Both were killed by
RUC automatic weapons fire. No weapons were found in the car nor were any
alledged to have been used by the two in the RUC account of the killings.
	The coroner's statement reads:

		"Within the last few days I have been engaged in the review
	of police files in these cases. Certain grave irregularities are
	documented and recorded on these files. Consequently, I am not
	prepared to preside at inquests in these cases. I have decided to
	communicate my resignation to the Lord Chancellor."

	Coroners have little power in Northern Ireland and Curran's protest
was probably the only means by which he could bring attention to the fact
that official RUC accounts were in strong disagreement with the physical
evidence at the scene of the killings. If he had said more he would certainly
be in violation of the Special Powers Act.
	There were no police charges against the two before the killings
and so they were not considered fugitives. The only justification stated
for the killings by the RUC was that the car failed to stop at the checkpoint.
A forensic expert stated that Seamus Grew was hit four times from a distance
of three feet THROUGH AN OPEN DOOR. Therefore the vehicle could not have
been moving at the time of the shooting.
	On the passenger side of the car photographs show that bullets were
fired into the vehicle from a position forward of vehicle. RUC accounts
stated that they only fired from the rear of the vehicle after the vehicle
passed thru the checkpoint.
	People of the district stated that these and other killings were
evidence of an official government policy of shooting on sight persons
suspected to be anti-government insurgents and official cover-up of the
actual events of the killings.

amir@digi-g.UUCP (Amir Vafaei) (10/01/84)

That is sad to hear.  The same policy of shooting at sight of anti-government
insurgents is in effect over most of the World.  ElSalvador, Phillipine, Iran, ...

The only way to stop such murders is mass struggle and public condemnation of
these acts of in-humanity.