Justice for murdered teen underlines need for inquests

The family of 15-year-old Patrick Crawford who was shot dead by a British soldier in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast say they “finally have justice” after 49 years.

A coroner found the British Army soldier, who remains anonymous, was responsible “more likely than not” for the murder of Patrick in the grounds of the hospital on 10 August 1975.

In 2015, the former Six County attorney general, John Larkin, granted a fresh inquest into the schoolboy’s death after a decades-long campaign by the family.

Delivering his findings at Belfast’s Laganside Courthouse on Monday, Judge Philip Gilpin confirmed 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, lawyer for the Crawford family said it was a “significant verdict” and the first legacy inquest decision for those cases which survived 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 judge described an RUC police investigation into the killing in 1975 as “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 consider whether the anonymity order on the British killer soldier responsible, now dead, would be removed. He said he would rule on that in the New Year before closing the legacy inquest.

Urgent Appeal