Inquest finds children gunned down by British soldiers ‘posed no risk at all’

An inquest at Belfast Coroner’s Court has ruled that two British soldiers “overreacted” and “lost control” when killing five innocent people who posed no threat. The troops gunned down their victims on 9 July 1972, in what became known as the Springhill Massacre, after the area in West Belfast where the brutal violence occurred.

Three of the victims were in their teens. One of them was thirteen year old Margaret Gargan, who one of the soldiers shot in the face as she sat on a wall talking to friends.

David McCafferty was fourteen, while John Dougal sixteen when he was shot in the back as he fled. The two King’s Regiment troops, identified only as Soldier A and Soldier E, also gunned down Catholic priest Noel Fitzpatrick and Patrick Butler. The latter man left behind six children. The army men also seriously wounded two other men.

Earlier that evening, two members of the 1st King’s Regiment C Company operating in the area had sustained bullet wounds. 1972 was the bloodiest year of ‘The Troubles’, with at least 479 people losing their lives. Exchanges of fire between republican paramilitaries and British soldiers were commonplace. The King’s Regiment often killed civilians in the aftermath of attacks on its own members.

Soldiers invented narrative to conceal unjustified killings

Soldiers A and E were stationed on an elevated position at Corry’s timber yard, and were only around 100 metres away from those they killed. The British army attempted to concoct a narrative in which the yard came under sustained organised attack, but Justice Scoffield rejected this version of events.

He said radio logs from the brigade “hugely undermine” those claims, and there was not “a coordinated attack by a mass of gunmen”. Scoffield, acting as presiding coroner, said their stories may amount to:

…a cynical attempt to justify shootings which were unjustified.

British soldiers were known to use binoculars and scopes when set up in sniping positions in Belfast. The coroner determined that the murderers would have been able to determine who they were firing at. Soldier E killed thirteen year old Gargan with an “aimed shot” while there was “no firing at her location”, and she posed “no risk at all”.

John Dougal was a member of the IRA’s youth wing, but Scoffield said:

With John Dougal shot in the back as he ran from the area and taking into account the requirements of the yellow card, the force used by Soldier A was not reasonable.

The yellow card was a guidance document the army gave to its soldiers to convey rules of engagement. It had no basis in law and was simply a general means to aid soldiers in determining when they could open fire.

Margaret’s brother Harry said in response to the inquest’s findings:

The verdict of unjust killing will never end the decades of grief and trauma inflicted on our family. The truth of what happened to our beautiful sister Margaret was always what our late mother and father desired in search of a new inquest.

John Dougal’s brother Jimmy called for the soldiers involved to be held accountable:

We want justice and those soldiers to be brought to book for what they did.

Much like the case of the Bloody Sunday Soldier F case, who was accused of illegal killings in a Derry massacre by British soldiers also in 1972, the length of time the British state has delayed proceedings makes this justice far harder to obtain. Not only that, Scoffield drew attention to the possibility that there was an intentional cover up regarding Springhill, saying the scale of missing documentation may have been for “improper” reasons. He may yet recommend criminal proceedings are opened.

The inquest was close to collapsing, following the Conservative government’s introduction of the Legacy Act designed as a further means of preventing investigation into historic Troubles era crimes. All cases had to be reach a verdict stage by 1 May 2024, and the Springhill inquest did so with only hours to spare. The Act is currently being restructured by the current Labour government.

The charity Relatives for Justice, which supports families bereaved from Six Counties’ state and paramilitary violence, concluded by paying tribute to the long struggle of the Springhill families:

…it is only fitting to conclude by recognising the victims’ family members, who have fought almost 54 years for truth, to write the state’s false history and who have shown nothing but dignity and fortitude in their fight for truth, justice, and vindication.

Featured image via the IrishRepublicanNews

By Robert Freeman

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