The elderly mother of a Co Derry man shot from behind by the SAS in a suspected shoot-to-kill operation is to legally challenge a coroner after he claimed the use of lethal force was “reasonable”.
Francis Bradley (20) was shot eight times during an undercover ambush close to an arms dump near Toome in February 1986.
His name was later added to the IRA’s roll of honour.
His family and many within his local community believe he was the victim of a shoot-to-kill operation.
Last month Coroner Peter Irvine said the “use of lethal force was justified”.
Mr Bradley’s 83-year-old mother Rosemary is now set to challenge the coroner’s findings.
Evidence was heard that 21 shots were fired at Mr Bradley as he inspected an arms dump containing two guns on the night he was killed.
An SAS man, known as Soldier A fired one round, the first discharged, which struck Mr Bradley, shattering his pelvis.
Mr Irvine later said the injury “was sustained when the deceased was not upright and on the balance of probabilities, he was presenting his rear to the shooter”.
Another squaddie, known as Soldier C, fired 20 shots at Mr Bradley, including a burst of three shots in automatic believed to have caused his death.
Mr Irvine said he was satisfied on the basis of the ballistics and pathologists’ evidence that when those shots were fired Mr Bradley was lying “supine”, on the ground.
Soldier C had refused to adopt a statement he made in 1986 and according to the coroner “in so doing he has effectively provided no explanation as to why he fired the shots”.
The coroner also pointed out that Soldier C “invoked privilege against self-incrimination” when asked questions about the shooting of Mr Bradley.
Lawyers for Mr Bradley’s family will now seek to quash any findings that conclude the shootings by Soldier C or Soldier A was justified.
During the inquest the coroner heard that the RUC told Mr Bradley he would be dead before his 21st birthday, while Karen Quinlivan KC, who acts for the Bradley family, put it to a British soldier that he had been “executed”.
Mr Bradley’s brother Brian said: “I and other members of my family sat through almost thirty days of evidence and heard the explanations given by the British army for shooting Francis.
“On many occasions they didn’t even answer questions for fear of incriminating themselves.
“In our minds the perverse verdict that this coroner has delivered bears little or no resemblance to the evidence we listened do and amounts to little more than a robust exoneration of the soldiers’ conduct.”
Solicitor Fearghal Shiels said they would be asking the court to quash the findings on the basis that they believed the “verdict does not withstand scrutiny.”
