A Co Down man exiled with his family after an IRA punishment-style shooting was unlawfully refused a victims’ payment, the High Court has heard.
Peter McCabe’s daughter Jeanitta was also wrongly denied compensation after she witnessed the immediate aftermath of the attack as a 10-year-old child, a judge was told.
Judicial review proceedings have been taken against the Victims’ Payment Board who determined they were ineligible because the incident was not assessed as Troubles-related.
Mr McCabe was shot in the leg when masked men entered the family’s home in Newry back in September 1990.
A second round was fired at him but deflected off a typewriter he had lifted to shield himself.
The gunmen declared that they were from the IRA and told him he had 24 hours to leave Ireland.
In an affidavit which forms part of his challenge, Mr McCabe stated he feared being killed if he disobeyed and relocated with his family to Britain.
They lived in bed and breakfast houses throughout England and Scotland before returning to Northern Ireland five years later.
In 2021 Mr McCabe applied to the Troubles Permanent Disability Payment Scheme - set up to provide financial support for those living with physical or psychological injuries sustained as a result of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
His daughter Jeanitta also sought a payout for the trauma she suffered as a child present at the scene of the shooting.
But the board which oversees the scheme turned down both applications on the basis it was not established to be a Troubles-Related Incident (TRI).
Under its guidance, some punishment attacks carried out by paramilitary vigilantes have been classed as ineligible for payments if the incidents are not linked to issues around Northern Ireland’s constitutional status.
Lawyers for the father and daughter claim the Board has wrongly interpreted what qualifies as a TRI and created a “hierarchy” of punishment.
Alleging the guidance is irrational, breaches their human rights and unlawfully thwarts a legislative purpose, they are seeking an order to have it quashed.
Mr McCabe’s barrister set out how he had been threatened and forced to quit their home after the gun attack.
Steven McQuitty KC said: “The family were effectively exiled from Ireland for a period of around five years.”
Both father and daughter were medically assessed as having suffered significant psychiatric harm due to the incident, the court heard.
“The impugned policy guidance is unlawful because it either approves or otherwise authorises unlawful conduct on behalf of Victims’ Payment Boards,” Mr McQuitty contended.
“The guidance is either plainly wrong on the statutory definition of an TRI or, alternatively, it provides a misleading picture of the true legal position.”
The case continues.