The family of a teenage boy who was shot by an unidentified British soldier in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital say they “finally have justice” after 49 years.
A coroner found the unidentified British Army soldier was responsible “more likely than not” for the fatal shooting of 15-year-old schoolboy Patrick Crawford in the grounds of the hospital on 10 August 1975.
In 2015, Northern Ireland’s former attorney general John Larkin granted a fresh inquest into Patrick’s death after representations from his family over the Troubles killing.
Delivering his findings at Belfast’s Laganside Courthouse on Monday, Judge Philip Gilpin said the teenager died of a single gunshot wound to the chest as he was escorted through the grounds of the hospital by two women.
Judge Gilpin rejected theories the teenager had been killed as part of an IRA feud, stating he “was an innocent 15-year-old boy not involved in any suspect activity at the time he was shot”.
Speaking after the inquest on Monday, Patrick’s sister Maggie welcomed the findings.
Ms Crawford said: “Our father died in 2006 without the benefit of knowing the truth about what happened to his son. We always believed that our Paddy was shot by a member of the British army for no reason.
“He was afraid and nervous when he asked if he could walk with two women through the grounds of the Royal to get home.
“The coroner has agreed with our view today. We cannot tell you how much this means to our family. We have been fighting for justice and information for 49 years. We finally have it.
“The family would like to thank the coroner, the coroner’s staff and our legal team for the efforts devoted to getting to the truth.”
Patricia Coyle, solicitor for the Crawford family said it was a “significant verdict” and the first legacy inquest decision since the guillotine date on legacy inquests of 30 April 2024 under the Legacy Act.
“This verdict goes to the core issue of the need for independent, judicial, and public inquests into contested killings in Northern Ireland where they involve the state,” Ms Coyle said.
“The requirement for meticulous and scrupulous judicial examination of forensic, ballistic and eye witness evidence in such cases is critical. The public mechanism of the inquests is essential to the correction of the public record.”
Judge Gilpin told the inquest the unidentified soldier “could not have had a reasonable belief of a threat of force”.
He told the court: “The cumulative effect of the facts as found by me, and the various strands of evidence when brought together, satisfy me on the balance of probabilities, to a sufficient degree of cogency, that it is more likely than not that Patrick was shot by an unidentified British Army soldier in circumstances where they could not have had a reasonable belief of a threat of force.
The court was told that on the day Patrick was shot there had been “considerable civil disturbance” in west Belfast and that a rally had taken place to mark the fourth anniversary of the introduction of internment in Northern Ireland.
Mr Gilpin said there had been outbreaks of sporadic violence “including gunfire towards members of the Army, particularly in and around the area of the RVH (Royal Victoria Hospital).”
“Patrick, who was walking home, had encountered two women, Annie Miskimmin and Catherine Faloon, and asked them to walk with him through the hospital grounds as he was “nervous of the army in the RVH”.
The judge added that an RUC investigation into the death in 1975 was “perfunctory”.
The coroner said: “There was no scene search as such, no attempt to retain clothing for analysis, no proper attempt to look for the bullet that killed Patrick and no proper engagement with witnesses.
“The absence of investigation only lends itself, in my view, to support a narrative that what happened to Patrick was known at the time and so there was no appetite to explore those events given the involvement of the Army.”
Mr Gilpin said, given his findings, he would take submissions on whether anonymity orders on two dead soldiers given the ciphers PC02 and PC03 would be removed.
He said he would rule on that in the new year before closing the legacy inquest.
