A coroner presiding over legacy inquests in Northern Ireland has raised concern over decisions to withhold certain official material from him and colleagues.
oroner Joe McCrisken raised the issue during a preliminary hearing ahead of a fresh inquest for a man shot by an Army rubber bullet in 1973.
Thomas Friel, 21, died in hospital in May 1973 four days after being hit by a rubber bullet fired by a soldier in the Creggan area of Londonderry.
A fresh inquest was ordered by Northern Ireland’s attorney general in 2014 after evidence emerged indicating that the Ministry of Defence knew of the lethal capacity of the projectiles.
When someone else has made a decision that I can’t see it, that makes me want to see it even moreCoroner Joe McCrisken
At Tuesday’s preliminary hearing in Belfast, the coroner raised the issue of accessing police documents that have been provisionally identified as attracting legal professional privilege.
Peter Coll QC, representing the PSNI, told the coroner he was going to examine the documents to make a definitive assessment as to whether they were privileged.
Mr McCrisken asked whether he would be able to know what was in the documents if they were classed as privileged.
He said that information would enable him to decide whether to potentially issue an order in an effort to obtain them for the inquest.
Mr Coll said he would prefer not to get into that “battleground” until it had been decided if the documents were indeed privileged.
The exchanges prompted Mr McCrisken to raise concerns about disclosure processes in other legacy cases.
“There is an issue that has arisen in a number of other legacy inquests with other counsel should I say, not yourself (Mr Coll), but counsel instructed by the Crown Solicitor’s Office where material has not been made available to myself in one circumstance, other coroners in others, where we think it should have been.
“And it’s made me slightly more cautious now about what material is in existence and who is deciding what I can see as coroner.
“That may sound a little bit cryptic but it’s made me rethink some of the disclosure processes, particularly involving the MoD.”
He added: “When someone else has made a decision that I can’t see it, that makes me want to see it even more.”
During the hearing, Mr McCrisken also made clear that he was not prepared to countenance any delays to the start of Mr Friel’s inquest, which is due to sit for two weeks in Derry at the start of November.
He was commenting after hearing counsel raise concerns about the production of expert reports in time for the hearing.
“I’ve absolutely no intention of vacating that date because that court is not available for about the next two years,” said Mr McCrisken.
“So this inquest will start in Derry on the day it is due to start.”
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