Last week Jim Allister, the leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice party said there had been “tangible anger” at the coroner’s verdict on 6 February while Democratic Unionist leader Gavin Robinson said he would not stand for “rewriting of the past”.
“As I read the statutory obligation that’s imposed upon me, I am obliged to send a written report of my findings in this inquest to the director of public prosecutions and I will do so as soon as that is practicable,” he said at Belfast’s Royal Courts of Justice.
A coroner who ruled that SAS soldiers were not justified in killing four IRA members in a 1992 ambush in Northern Ireland is to refer his findings to the director of public prosecutions.
On Thursday, the judge said he was obliged by law to send a report to Northern Ireland’s DPP if an inquest disclosed evidence that indicated a criminal offence may have been committed.
Outside court on Thursday, the solicitor Niall Murphy, who represents some of the bereaved relatives in the case, said the findings in the inquest were based on evidence that was “overwhelmingly conclusive” and the families hoped and trusted the public prosecution “will come to its decision as soon as possible”.
