Public money being used to ‘punish’ SAS veterans, former Army commanders claim, after judge dismisses legal challenge brought by family of IRA man killed 35 years ago
Public money is being misused to ‘punish’ SAS veterans who served heroically in Northern Ireland, two former Army commanders have claimed.
After a judge in Belfast dismissed a legal challenge by the family of an IRA man killed during an SAS operation in Coagh, Co Tyrone, in 1991, General Sir Peter Wall, the former head of the Army, and General Sir Nick Parker, the former Commander Land Forces, said taxpayers’ money is funding ‘meritless challenges.’
They called on the government to urgently review its Troubles Bill, which scrapped measures enacted in the Conservative government’s Legacy Act designed to protect Northern Ireland veterans from prosecution.
‘Public money is being misused to fund meritless challenges, wasting precious judicial time and dragging veterans and their families through years of unnecessary distress,’ they said in a joint statement.
Their response came after a judge in Belfast on Thursday dismissed a second appeal against a coroner’s findings that SAS soldiers were justified in their use of lethal force when they killed three IRA men almost 35 years ago.
The Army unit had intelligence that members of the IRA’s East Tyrone brigade planned to murder a former member of the Loyalist Ulster Defence Regiment [UDR] at a public car park in Coagh.
A soldier had disguised himself as the ex-UDR man and stood in wait.
When one of the IRA volunteers opened the passenger door of their vehicle with a rifle aimed, the SAS team opened fire, killing paramilitaries Peter Ryan, Tony Doris and Lawrence McNally.
Doris was later described by a judge as being part of an ‘active service unit intent on murder.’
An IRA guard of honour at the funeral for volunteer Lawrence McNally, killed by SAS troops during an operation in County Tyrone in 1991
Tony Doris, a cousin of Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, was killed. His daughter launched a legal challenge against a coroner’s conclusion that lethal force was justified
Doris’ daughter, Roisin Nugent, received legal aid to challenge the coroner’s 2024 verdict, launching a judicial review application into the SAS team’s use of force – focussing on one veteran, known as Soldier B, now in his 60s.
She claimed that Soldier B, who fired eight shots towards her father in the space of two seconds, should have instead shouted a ‘warning’ or at least paused after each shot to think whether it was absolutely necessary.
Doris’ cousin is Michelle O’Neill, the current First Minister of Northern Ireland and vice president of Sinn Fein.
In an excoriating judgement following a hearing at the High Court in Belfast last year, Mr Justice McAlinden roundly dismissed Ms Nugent’s claim, saying the grounds of the legal challenge were ‘utterly divorced from the reality of the circumstances and challenges faced by Soldier B.’
He added: ‘Faced with a vehicle containing three members of an IRA active service unit intent on murder, what was Soldier B to do? Should he have fired one shot in the hope that this would have frightened the occupants of the vehicle into surrendering?
‘What if the occupants of the vehicle instead of surrendering, directed automatic rifle fire at the soldiers in the lorry, who were lying prone and trapped in their positions? The soldiers would have effectively been sitting ducks.
‘The only realistic response available to the soldiers… was to neutralise the immediate threat to life posed by the occupants of that vehicle and Soldier B clearly acted in a restrained and proportionate manner.’
Describing the challenge as ‘ludicrous’, he added: ‘I cannot conclude this judgment without expressing my surprise that legal aid funding was made available to mount such a challenge.’
The aftermath of the incident in Coagh, Co Tyrone. A judge concluded that the three IRA men were part of an ‘active service unit’ and were intending to kill on the day in question
Despite his findings, Ms Nugent again used legal aid to take her case to Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal.
The legal aid system in Northern Ireland is devolved from central government although the Northern Ireland Department of Justice is assisted by Westminster funding.
In a summary of her findings, again refusing Ms Nugent’s request to seek judicial review of the inquest conclusion, released on Thursday, Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan said Soldier B ‘honestly believed’ the IRA unit posed an ‘immediate threat to life’.
She added that his actions were a ‘proportionate response in a fast-moving and lethal situation. She also questioned whether the challenge was an ‘effective use of public funds.’
‘To us the challenge really amounted to a disagreement with the coroner’s findings,’ she said.
Responding to the judge’s finding, Sir David Davis, a former SAS reservist, said: ‘This is large amounts of public money being misspent masquerading as justice, whilst in truth it promotes serial injustice.’
He described the Labour government’s proposed Troubles legislation as ‘a disgrace and a scandal.’
A joint statement from Special Forces associations said the judge’s finding in the Soldier B case ‘exposes how attempts to deal with the legacy of the Troubles are being exploited at public expense to punish and persecute veterans and to peddle a false narrative.’
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘We welcome the Court of Appeal’s judgment dismissing the Nugent appeal.
‘This case is part of the complex legacy of the Troubles, which affected so many veterans, families, and communities.’