Coroner says state failed to prove police killing of IRA man was lawful

The State has failed to prove police acted lawfully in shooting dead an unarmed IRA man in Belfast, a coroner has ruled.

Justice Horner said it was impossible to determine with certainty what happened when Pearse Jordan was killed by a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer in west Belfast in 1992.

In delivering his findings in what was the third inquest into the highly contentious death, the coroner said he was not convinced either by family claims the 22-year-old was gunned down in cold blood or by police insistence the RUC sergeant acted in self-defence.

Justice Horner noted that under European human rights laws the onus was on the State to prove that, on the balance of probabilities, the killing was lawful.

He said given his inability to reach a firm conclusion on what had happened, the state had failed to prove that point.

"It is sufficient to record that no version has been put forward which commends itself to this inquest on the balance of probabilities," he said.