A suspected IRA man shot dead during a police raid was killed lawfully, a British inquest jury ruled yesterday at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court. The jury took four hours to reach their majority verdict.
Mr Diarmuid O'Neill (27) died when he was hit by six shots from an automatic rifle in a London hotel room in September 1996.
Armed police burst into the room after a three-month surveillance operation had targeted Mr O'Neill and others who had amassed six tons of home-made explosives in a London hideaway.
Throughout the three-week hearing, Mr Michael Mansfield QC, representing the family, had cross-examined a string of police witnesses.
Addressing the jury afterwards, the West London coroner, Dr John Burton, said: "There has been criticism of my remarks to the jury. I have been here three weeks. I am not proud of my conduct in this inquiry or the form of the inquiry itself.
"Mr Mansfield has said that we live in a democratic society and that people who volunteer to take risks must be prepared to answer for the consequences of their acts.
"He is right. This is a democratic society. That society has required the police officers to take risks on our behalf. We ask them to do it.
"I have subjected them to three weeks' sustained attack without the protection afforded by the criminal court, with no pretence of natural justice, and there is nothing that I can do about it.
"The need to change the law to prevent this is, to me, overwhelming."
Before sending the jury out, Dr Burton had told them they could reach three possible verdicts.
He said: "You have three possible conclusions. `He was killed unlawfully', which can be presented to say he was a martyr and it justified what the campaign set out to achieve.
" `He was killed lawfully', which can be presented to show that it is lawful in England to kill people without a trial and that justifies and explains the conflict.
"Or you have an open verdict and that can be presented however the person seeks to use it."