The British government is pressing ahead with a legal challenge to stop a coroner providing information about the murder of a Catholic man 30 years ago.
Paul Topper Thompson (25) was shot dead in April 1994 after UDA members cut a hole in a Belfast peace line fence close to a British army base to enter a nationalist area.
Hours earlier, a neighbour reported a hole in the fence at Springfield Park in west Belfast to the RUC and Northern Ireland Office (NIO) but no action was taken.
Mr Thompson’s inquest was one of several involving a Public Interest Immunity (PII) process that were halted earlier this year.
PII certificates are used by state agencies to withhold information they do not want the public to see.
In March, former Tory Secretary of State Chris Heaton Harris and PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher took legal action to stop a coroner producing a gist, or summary, of sensitive information in the Thompson case.
Lawyers claimed any summary of information breached the British government’s Neither Confirm Nor Deny (NCND) policy.
The PSNI later accepted a court ruling after the challenge was thrown out while he NIO unsuccessfully referred the case to the Court of Appeal and has since lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court.
A gist produced in the case of former Co Derry GAA official Sean Brown, who was shot dead by loyalists in May 1997, revealed that more than 25 people had been linked by intelligence to the murder, including several state agents.
The NIO has also launched a legal challenge linked to that inquest.
The Thompson inquest, which opened in 1995, was later one of several abandoned by coroners due to the introduction of the British government’s Legacy Act.
The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 ended all inquests and civil cases in May, as well as introducing conditional immunity.
Legal challenges were launched against the controversial legislation, including one by the Irish Government at the European Court of Human Rights, while a High Court judge ruled that conditional immunity and plans to close down some civil actions are unlawful.
In a written statement to the House of Commons this week Labour Secretary of State Hilary Benn confirmed the NIO is to drop part of its appeal to the earlier High Court ruling.
Mr Benn and his party have they will repeal and replace the Legacy Act.
However, it is understood the challenge against the coroner in the Thompson case is still scheduled to go ahead.
If successful, important details about the murder may never be made public.
Daniel Holder, Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice welcomed the decision to remove some parts of the legal challenge but voiced concern that others remain in place.
“Beyond this there are other appeals taken by previous Tory Ministers relating to ‘sensitive’ material legacy inquests that which as things stand are continuing,” he said.
“In the Topper Thompson case the former Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris lost two cases in the High Court and then the Court of Appeal but sought to appeal the case to the UK Supreme Court.
“As things stand this appeal is still continuing under the new Labour Government, although yesterday’s statement does say they are now considering the best way forward for inquests with ‘sensitive’ material’.”
A spokesman for the NIO said: “We do not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
