Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

McGuinness slams Coroners Court system

Speaking after attending the start of Coroner's preliminary hearings in Cookstown Courthouse into the killings of ten people by Crown Forces and unionist paramilitaries on Tuesday, Mid-Ulster MP Martin McGuinness was scathing of the Coroners Court system.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, McGuinness said "this morning's proceedings were an eye opener for me. What I witnessed in Cookstown Courthouse today was an insult to the families that came here in the hope that the process of uncovering the truth of how their loved ones died would begin.

"Instead what we saw was arguments over whether or not the families would receive funding from the Court Services to pursue their cases, stalling and failure by lawyers for the RUC and British Army to produce relevant documents about the killings to the coroner. Denial of access to documents and lawyers for the families having to threaten High Court action to ensure that the ruling about funding by the European Court of Human Rights under Article 2 is complied with.

"Now none of this is in any way intended to be a criticism of the Coroner, Mr Roger MacLernon. In fact, the Coroner is to be commended for his own critical comments about the inadequacy of funding and facilities available not just to the families but to him and his colleagues outside of Belfast. During the hearing, Mr MacLernon commented that the manner in which the coroners outside of Belfast are being treated threatens to bring the Office of Coroner into disrepute. He claimed that coroners are forced to use their own private office facilities as no back-up service is available, even to the extent that stenographers are not available to record proceedings.

"This state of affairs is an absolute disgrace and I will be taking it up with the British and Irish governments at the first opportunity to ensure that the tactics used by the British military establishment in its attempts to frustrate the Bloody Sunday Tribunal of Inquiry are not deployed to prevent an open and transparent Coroners Inquest into these deaths.

"I wholeheartedly support the families' assessment that the implications of the European Court decision demands the investigations into the deaths of their loved ones be reopened and independently examined."