British Soldier 'Unjustified' In Shooting Teen Manus Deery

A British soldier who shot dead a teenager in Londonderry was unjustified in discharging the fatal round, a coroner has ruled.

Manus Deery, 15, was struck in the head by fragments of a bullet that ricocheted off a wall as he stood outside a chip shop in 1972.

The round was fired by a soldier who, aiming from a fortified observation sanger on Derry's historic city walls, claimed he had fired on a gunman but missed and hit the wall.

Presiding coroner Mr Justice Adrian Colton said his assessment of the evidence was there was no such gunman and that "the discharge of the round was unjustified".

However, Justice Colton said he was unable to determine whether Private William Glasgow, now deceased, was under an honest belief that he had seen an armed man.

He added:

"The force used was disproportionate to the threat perceived."

Manus's sister Helen, who long campaigned for a fresh inquest, said she was delighted his name had been cleared:

"It has been a long drawn-out process and there's been lots of hurdles along the way, but it's been worth it. My emotions today are I love my brother, so I am just a bit sentimental and peaceful too."

The coroner said the teenager's family pursued a new inquest to address a "perceived stain on his character" related to insinuations he may have been involved in paramilitary activity. He told Derry courthouse that he had "no doubt" the boy was blameless: 

"Manus Deery was a totally innocent victim, he didn't pose a threat to soldiers or anyone else"

The commanding officer of Mr Glasgow met privately with the Deery family after he gave evidence to the fresh inquest.

Helen Derry said he "cried his eyes out":

"In fact my sister's hair was wet with his tears. I accepted his apology and I believed him (...) It meant the world for us to see he was so sorry about it"

During inquest proceedings, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) acknowledged that the shooting was unjustified.

In a statement given the day after the incident, Mr Glasgow claimed he fired at a gunman standing beneath an archway beside a pub in the Bogside.

He was not prosecuted. A new inquest was ordered by Northern Ireland's attorney general John Larkin in 2012.

The original inquest in 1973 returned an open verdict.

The coroner said official police investigation of the shooting in 1972 was "flawed and inadequate".

The killing, which occurred months after Bloody Sunday in Derry, was one of the most contentious of the Troubles.

Cover photo courtesy of the Deery family