THE inquest into the death of the last man shot dead by the RUC has been postponed until next month it has emerged.

Pearse Jordan (21), from New Barnsley Drive, west Belfast, was shot dead on the Falls Road by undercover police on November 25 1992.

The inquest into his death, which has been delayed on numerous occasions, was due to start this week but will not begin until March 5.

Last week it was revealed, during a reserved judgment in an application for judicial review brought by the victim’s father, that members of the security forces involved in controversial shootings, will soon be compelled to give evidence at inquests.

Before the change to the law following last year’s European court ruling under which the British government was ordered to pay £10,000 each to relatives of 10 IRA men and two civilians shot dead, police officers and soldiers were exempt from giving evidence.

Last night the Jordan family’s solicitor, Angela Ritchie of Madden and Finucane, said she would be pressing for an expeditious hearing of the judicial review challenging that a jury should be able to return a verdict on the killing.

She said: “The whole system is now under review. The UK government is not obliged to comply with international standards and it must follow the European court ruling last May that proper public inquiry into killings involving state authorities is required.”

The European court hearing, which included the Jordan case and the deaths of 11 other men shot dead in controversial circumstances between 1982 and 1992, ruled that their human rights were violated as a result of flawed inquest procedures after their deaths.

The cases also included allegations of a shoot-to-kill policy.