Police cannot be held liable for any alleged failure to ensure the safety of a man injured in the Enniskillen Poppy Day bombing, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Senior judges dismissed Joseph Holbeach’s claim for negligence after finding RUC officers did not owe him a duty of care at the scene of the IRA atrocity in November 1987.
Eleven people were initially killed in the explosion near the Co Fermanagh town’s war memorial during a Remembrance Sunday ceremony.
A twelfth victim died in 2000 after spending 13 years in a coma.
Mr Holbeach, who had been standing close to the cenotaph, was among more than 60 others injured in the blast.
He has suffered from anxiety and depression, and spoke previously about attempting suicide because of what happened to him.
Despite recognising it was the Provisional IRA who planted the bomb which caused his injuries, he sued the Chief Constable for alleged negligence.
Lawyers for Mr Holbeach argued police owed him a duty of care as they had responsibility for his safety as an attendee at the Remembrance Day event.
The case centred on a failure to carry out a prior search of the nearby Reading Rooms building where the bomb was planted.
In his statement of claim, Mr Holbeach said the presence of police influenced his decision to attend the parade amid the threat from terrorists at the time.
He also alleged it was negligent not to search the Reading Rooms despite the knowledge that the IRA had carried out a bomb attack in Enniskillen town centre earlier that year.
In April last year the PSNI successfully applied to have the lawsuit struck out at a preliminary stage.
A High Court Master held that the claim disclosed no reasonable cause of action against the Chief Constable.
In an appeal against that ruling, Mr Holbeach contended that he felt safe at the parade where RUC officers had searched other locations along the route.
Lord Justice McCloskey acknowledged the mental and physical injuries suffered by the plaintiff.
“He is a living victim of one of the most appalling terrorist atrocities which scarred the recent wretched history of Northern Ireland,” the judge said.
However, he stated Mr Holbeach was aware of the potential for lethal terrorist attack at the location.
With officers already facing a general obligation to protect life and property under the terms of the Police (NI) Act 2000, the court held it would “distort the legal framework” if they were also subject to a private law duty of care to the plaintiff.
The failure to search the Reading Rooms cannot be equated with causing harm or creating a material danger, Lord Justice McCloskey stressed.
He said: “The general principle that a public authority does not owe a duty of care to a claimant to prevent the misconduct of third parties must prevail.”
Dismissing Mr Holbeach’s appeal, the judge confirmed: “We have concluded it is not arguable that the plaintiff could establish at trial a relevant assumption of responsibility giving rise to a duty on the part of the RUC to take reasonable care for his safety at the material time.”