UK inquest into killing of IRA gunman was 'sufficient despite flaws’

European Court rules over probe into fatal shooting of Martin McCaughey by British Army

The inquest into Martin McCaughey's death returned a verdict of lawful killing. Paul McErlane / The National

An inquest into the killing of an Irish Republican Army gunman by British soldiers was flawed but sufficient, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday.

Martin McCaughey, 23, was shot dead near Loughgall, Co Armagh, by the SAS on October 9, 1990.

His sister, Sally Gribben, took the case to the European court, alleging a failure to conduct an effective investigation into her brother's death.

Soldiers had been carrying out night-time surveillance at a farm when McCaughey and Desmond Grew appeared wearing gloves and balaclavas, and armed with AK-47 rifles.

While the court found the inquest “had undoubtedly been thorough”, it identified “certain weaknesses”, including a failure to disclose to the next of kin material relating to other fatal shootings in which the soldiers had been involved.

However, it did not consider that those weaknesses had undermined the inquest's meeting of its investigation requirements.

The court concluded the application was “inadmissible as manifestly ill-founded".

In a statement after McCaughey’s death, the Provisional IRA said he had been an IRA volunteer on active service at the time.

A decision was made in April 1993 not to prosecute the soldiers involved on the basis that there was not sufficient evidence to prove they had not been acting in self-defence.

An inquest into McCaughey's death in 2012 returned a verdict of lawful killing.