Northern Ireland

RUC believed another republican drove car that Pearse Jordan was travelling in

IRA man Pearse Jordan
IRA man Pearse Jordan IRA man Pearse Jordan

THE RUC believed another republican was driving the car Pearse Jordan was travelling in during the hours before police officers shot him dead.

Details are contained in a police intelligence document recently presented to an inquest into the IRA man's death.

Four former RUC men, who had previously given evidence at the inquest, were recalled on Tuesday following the disclosure of the document by police.

Mr Jordan (23) was killed after the stolen Ford Orion he was driving was rammed by police on the Falls Road in west Belfast in November 1992.

The policemen were all attached to Headquarters Mobile Support Unit and had been travelling in two cars prior to the shooting.

Civilian witnesses later claimed the Ballymurphy man was shot three times in the back as he ran away, while the officer who shot him claimed he was facing him.

Last week two experts told the fresh inquest into the republican's death that he must have been shot in the back.

During yesterday’s hearing each of the RUC men were shown a document headed SB50.

Reading from it, a lawyer for the coroner said that at 3.40pm on the day Mr Jordan was shot, a "named person” and unknown person were seen “moving gear in a red Ford Orion... on the Whiterock Road outside the leisure centre”.

The “named person”, who was not Mr Jordan, was said to be another republican from west Belfast, who the coroner heard had been involved in previous gun and bomb attacks on police.

Barry Macdonald QC, for Mr Jordan’s family, suggested to several of the officers that they had been briefed about the unnamed IRA man before the police operation and during a later debrief.

Each of the officers said they did not recall having been told the man’s name at any time.

The officers also denied knowing the man after being shown a photograph of him.

Some of the witnesses said they would have expected to have been given relevant information about who they were monitoring, while one former policeman, known as Officer D, said he would not have expected to have been briefed about the IRA man.

Meanwhile, a former deputy to the assistant chief constable of Special Branch also gave evidence on Tuesday after he was named in a statement by a former policeman involved in the inquest.