Patricia also heads up the firm’s Legacy Department. She has particular interest and expertise in historical Inquiries arising from her role in representing the families of those killed and wounded on Bloody Sunday, 30th January 1972. As a trainee and then a qualified solicitor from 1992 to 1998 she assisted the families, the wounded and the Bloody Sunday Initiative/Justice campaign and the Bloody Sunday Trust in unearthing new evidence undermining the lawfulness and credibility of the original 1972 Widgery Inquiry. The new evidence assisted in the establishment of the Saville Inquiry in January 1998. After setting up Harte Coyle Collins with Nichola Harte and Paula Collins in 2003 she continued to represent the interests of clients who were witnesses to the events of Bloody Sunday before the Saville Inquiry, and witnesses in the Rosemary Nelson Inquiry and the Billy Wright Inquiry.
She continues to act for the families of those killed by the state and paramilitaries seeking information and justice. This assistance involves applications for fresh Inquests to the Attorney General for Northern Ireland. Requests currently being pursued on behalf of the next of kin of victims killed by the state and/or paramilitaries include applications on behalf of the families of Annette McGavigan (Derry, 1971), Thomas Burns (Belfast, 1972), Rosaleen O’Kane (Belfast, 1976), William Smyth (Belfast, 1978), and Patrick Duffy (Derry, 1978). Fresh inquests were directed by the Attorney General in respect of the death of Patrick Duffy in March 2019, Thomas Burns in March 2023 and Annette McGavigan in April 2024. A fresh police investigation by the PSNI into the murder of Rosaleen O Kane was triggered by a successful judicial review in 2023 and is ongoing.
Patricia acted for the widow and sister of Daniel Carson shot by a loyalist gunman in Dayton Street, Belfast on the 1st November 1973 in a fresh legacy inquest which ran from 2018 to 2019 and resulted in a referral by the Coroner for consideration of prosecution to the Director of the Public Prosecution Service. The Coroner found that the police investigation into the murder of Daniel Carson in 1973 was inadequate.
Patricia also acts for the family of Master Patrick Crawford in a legacy inquest which opened in March 2022 in Belfast and completed in April 2024. Patrick Crawford was an innocent 15 year old boy who was fatally shot while walking through the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital on the 10th August 1975. The family of Master Patrick Crawford allege that he was shot by the British army. The family await the verdict.
From 2023 to 2024 Patricia acted on behalf of a witness to the Springhill Massacre who was shot and seriously wounded by the army on 9th July 1972. The inquest ran from 2023 to April 2024. The verdict is pending.
In 2020 Patricia obtained compensation for victims of the alleged activity of an undercover army unit which operated covertly in Belfast in the early 1970s. The next of kin of the victims, brothers Gerry and John Conway, received compensation for the shooting by the undercover army unit which took place on the 15th April 1972 on the Ballymurphy Road, Belfast. Irrefutable new evidence in the form of army documents was unearthed which confirmed that the undercover army unit dressed in civilian clothes was responsible for the shooting.
In 2000 Patricia applied on behalf of her client Liam Holden to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to refer a 1972 murder conviction back to the NI Court of Criminal Appeal. The unsafe conviction was referred back to the Court of Appeal in 2009. On the 12th June 2012 the conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal. In 2017 Patricia obtained the maximum award under the Department of Justice compensation scheme of 1 million pounds for Mr Holden. The DOJ scheme did not cover the allegations of water-boarding, public misfeasance and malicious prosecution. Patricia pursued a civil action for Mr Holden for these matters. The civil case ran for 2 weeks in January 2022. Judgment was delivered on 24th March 2023. The court found that Mr Holden had suffered waterboarding, the threat of death at gunpoint, public misfeasance and malicious prosecution and awarded further compensation of £350,000 to Mr Holden’s estate.
Patricia also provides advice to artists, authors and musicians in the film and music industry. Among those are the interests of the Irish language rap trio Kneecap co-creators of their recent 2024 film; the late author Maureen McKeown whose book “The Extraordinary Case of Sister Ligouri” is now being made into a international television series and dance music artist Jonny O Hanlon (Jonny Was Here) who was snapped up by Sony records in 2023. She seeks to redress the balance of power between larger production companies and the individual artists, musicians and authors.
In May 2024 Patricia with partner Nichola Harte and trainee lawyers Cathal Mullan and Meadbh O Dowd launched the Environmental Law Department of the firm. In September 2024 the firm issued pre-action protocol correspondence in respect of the blue/green algae recurrence in Lough Neagh. Other environmental law cases are currently under consideration by the new Department working in conjunction with NGOs including PILS. The firm is determined to play its part in attempting to clean up the North of the island now known as “the dirty corner” and “meatlocker” of Europe.
Partner & Solicitor Advocate