Eight survivors of 1992 UVF gun attack on Co Down pub awarded millions in damages
Eight survivors of a loyalist gun attack on a Co Down pub in 1992 have received a multi-million pound settlement against police and the British Ministry of Defence.
High Court approves settlement for Thierafurth Inn shooting survivors
Eight survivors of a loyalist gun attack on a Co Down pub have received substantial damages in a settlement against the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the British Ministry of Defence, Google News IE — Crime (en) reports.
The settlement, believed to run to several million pounds, was approved at Belfast's High Court on Tuesday. The exact amount remains undisclosed under the terms of the agreement.
The case stems from a UVF attack on the Thierafurth Inn in Kilcoo on 19 November 1992, during which two gunmen entered the premises and opened fire indiscriminately on customers gathered for a charity darts match. Peter McCormack, a former school teacher, was shot in the back and died. His family is not part of the group settlement, described as one of the largest of its kind.
The UVF stated they had been attempting to kill a named republican who frequented the pub, and that they had used British Army intelligence montages taken from a UDR barracks in the area to identify their target.
The civil case followed a 2016 report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI), which was critical of the activities of a loyalist gang operating in south Down. The PONI report found that military intelligence material had been accessed by the gang, that there had been no sustained police effort to disrupt their activities despite the group already being responsible for several murders and attempted murders, and that intelligence about the killers was not shared appropriately. It also concluded that security forces in the region — both police and military — had been compromised through associations or sympathies with the gang.
A separate report found that the RUC was aware of plans to remove military intelligence documents from a UDR base and chose not to intervene.
Members of the same UVF unit were later implicated in the murder of six men in a 1994 gun attack on the Heights Bar in nearby Loughinisland, carried out during a Republic of Ireland World Cup match.
Outside Belfast High Court, solicitor Gavin Booth of Phoenix Law said none of those present in the Thierafurth Inn that night had ever fully recovered.
"It's taken 11 years since the civil proceedings started for us to bring this to court, but today is finally an acknowledgement of the hurt, the pain, and the trauma caused to these families."
Patrick Gribben, who was shot several times in the attack, said people did not appreciate the lasting impact his injuries had on those around him. John McEvoy, who was working behind the bar that night and escaped physical injury, said he remained haunted by the experience.
"It never goes out of your mind, it's with you all the time, but I suppose as the years go on, you get by it."
In addition to paying compensation, the PSNI and the military agreed to cover legal costs.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)