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24/01/2014
Inquest Ordered Into 1973 Rubber Bullet Death
A fresh inquest has been granted by the Attorney General into the death of a 21-year-old man who was struck by a rubber bullet while returning from a night out in L'Derry.
On 18 May 1973 Thomas Friel was hit by the bullet in the Creggan area of the city and died four days later.
The Attorney General has now ordered a fresh inquest to examine the circumstances of Mr Friel's death in light of documents uncovered by the Pat Finucane Centre, which were withheld from the original inquest.
The human rights group says the documents show that the Ministry of Defence withheld scientific data indicating that rubber bullets were more dangerous than had been admitted publicly.
The Attorney General said: "These documents represent potentially relevant material which could usefully be explored at the new inquest into the death of Thomas Friel."
The Pat Finucane Centre also said a new pathology report commissioned by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) contradicts the finding of the original post-mortem carried out by the deputy State Pathologist Dr Carson.
The post-mortem said it was unlikely Mr Friel had died as a result of being struck by a rubber baton round.
But now the Attorney General has said the conclusion in the new report "casts some doubt on the original findings of Dr Carson and the finding of the original inquest."
A spokesperson for Mr Friel's family has said: "We have had years of lies. After more than forty years they must now accept that Thomas was killed by a rubber bullet. These documents show that the British government knew how dangerous the rubber bullets were, but were more concerned with the cover-up than the people they were killing. Our thoughts are with the other families who were affected, those who were injured or killed because the British government were happy to use these deadly weapons on our streets."
Paul O’Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre said: "The use and lethality of rubber bullets is the sort of thematic issue that the Independent Commission for Information Retrieval (ICIR) as proposed by Haass could have examined. The documents uncovered by the Pat Finucane Centre are only the tip of the iceberg. Is this what the DUP is afraid of?"
(IT/MH)
On 18 May 1973 Thomas Friel was hit by the bullet in the Creggan area of the city and died four days later.
The Attorney General has now ordered a fresh inquest to examine the circumstances of Mr Friel's death in light of documents uncovered by the Pat Finucane Centre, which were withheld from the original inquest.
The human rights group says the documents show that the Ministry of Defence withheld scientific data indicating that rubber bullets were more dangerous than had been admitted publicly.
The Attorney General said: "These documents represent potentially relevant material which could usefully be explored at the new inquest into the death of Thomas Friel."
The Pat Finucane Centre also said a new pathology report commissioned by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) contradicts the finding of the original post-mortem carried out by the deputy State Pathologist Dr Carson.
The post-mortem said it was unlikely Mr Friel had died as a result of being struck by a rubber baton round.
But now the Attorney General has said the conclusion in the new report "casts some doubt on the original findings of Dr Carson and the finding of the original inquest."
A spokesperson for Mr Friel's family has said: "We have had years of lies. After more than forty years they must now accept that Thomas was killed by a rubber bullet. These documents show that the British government knew how dangerous the rubber bullets were, but were more concerned with the cover-up than the people they were killing. Our thoughts are with the other families who were affected, those who were injured or killed because the British government were happy to use these deadly weapons on our streets."
Paul O’Connor from the Pat Finucane Centre said: "The use and lethality of rubber bullets is the sort of thematic issue that the Independent Commission for Information Retrieval (ICIR) as proposed by Haass could have examined. The documents uncovered by the Pat Finucane Centre are only the tip of the iceberg. Is this what the DUP is afraid of?"
(IT/MH)
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