The brother of Catholic man killed by loyalists has branded a failed legal challenge by the PSNI chief constable and Secretary of State to stop a coroner providing him with information about the killing a “total waste of resources”.
Eugene Thompson was speaking after a High Court judge dismissed the judicial review application on Monday.
The legal action was launched over a decision by a corner to provide a summary of security force intelligence about the sectarian murder of Paul ‘Topper’ Thompson in April 1994.
The 25-year-old was gunned down after UDA members cut a hole in a peace line fence close to a British army base to enter a nationalist area.
Speaking outside court, Mr Thompson described it as a “stressful and very difficult time.”
“There was absolutely no need for this challenge to have been brought.
“It was a total waste of resources and has unnecessarily delayed getting on with the inquest.”
Mr Thompson hopes his brother’s inquest can now resume.
“This ruling should help other families,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can now move swiftly in concluding Paul’s inquest.”
Solicitor Gemma McKeown, from the Committee on the Administration of Justice, said the ruling “upholds the vital and independent role of the coroner in carrying out the balancing exercise of the competing public interests of national security and open justice.
“We now look forward to receiving the gist and getting this delayed inquest back on track so that it can conclude before May 1.”
Mark Thompson from Relatives for Justice said the ruling “is of major significance”.
“Conscious that this case was about the gisting of an intelligence file as opposed to the file itself being made fully available, it nevertheless has far wider, indeed positive, benefits for open justice and not least for families involved in legacy cases,” he said.
