Northern Ireland

Innocent Victims United says Paddy McElhone killing 'wrong'

Kenny Donaldson
Kenny Donaldson Kenny Donaldson

A victims' group has described the British army killing of a man in Co Tyrone more than four decades ago as "wrong".

Innocent Victims United (IVU) spoke out after a coroner found that the shooting of Paddy McElhone near his home in Pomeroy in 1974 was unjustified.

Mr McElhone was shot in the back by Lance Corporal Roy Alun Jones, First Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Wales, who has since died.

Judge Siobhan Keegan said he was an "innocent man shot in cold blood without warning when he was no threat to anyone".

IVU is an umbrella organisation for 23 victim and survivor groups united by "our opposition to criminal violence".

Spokesman Kenny Donaldson said the killing of Mr McElhone "should not have happened, it was wrong".

"Whilst we will never fully know the context in which the killing happened - due to the soldier concerned now having passed away - it is clear that Paddy McElhone was not someone who was presenting threat to life," he said.

"All of us need to call out wrong whenever it occurs."

The inquest found that Mr McElhone, who had been taken from his home to a nearby meadow before being killed, appeared on no lists associated with the IRA.

"Anyone who fails to call out this wrong has little moral justification to then comment on acts of terrorism or other Troubles-related violence," Mr Donaldson said.

"Our thoughts are with those directly impacted by his killing."