Frances Bradley

Francis Bradley (20) was shot dead at a farm on the Hillhead Road near Toome in 1986

Ciarán Shiels, of Madden & Finucane Solicitors, who represent the family of Francis Bradley, reacting to the verdict outside Laganside Courthouse this afternoon said:

“The family are hugely disappointed in today’s ruling. They have already consulted with their Senior Counsel and we have advised them to immediately challenge, by way of Judicial Review, the Coroner’s verdict on the grounds that they are unreasonable, irrational, unlawful, and bear little resemblance to how the oral hearings of this Inquest actually ran.

“The Bradley family have today sat through hours upon hours of quotations of lengthy extracts of the evidence that was before both Inquests. The Bradley family’s view on the judgment is that it was long on quotation, short on analysis, but purported to justify the undercover soldiers’ firing at a 20 year old, who by the stage that the final burst of shots were fired into his body, was lying prone on the ground, facing up at his killer, unarmed, and utterly defenceless.

“Francis Bradley could easily have been arrested, instead undercover British soldiers chose to fire 21 high velocity rounds at him, striking him with 8 bullets, only to have their actions defended even more robustly than Lord Widgery defended the actions of 1 Para’s anti-tank platoon on Bloody Sunday.”