PRESS RELEASE
INQUEST VERDICT & ANONMITY RULING INTO THE DEATH OF MASTER PATRICK CRAWFORD (15) KILLED ON 10TH AUGUST 1975 AT RVH
ISSUED BY HARTE COYLE COLLINS, SOLICITORS & ADVOCATES
11th JUNE 2025
On 29th May 2025, a Coroner in Belfast delivered a Ruling removing the anonymity protection from 2 military witnesses, previously known as PC02 and PC03, who were military witnesses into the fatal shooting of the 15 year old schoolboy in August 1975 in the Royal Victoria Hospital.
The inquest Verdict into the death of schoolboy Patrick Crawford (15) was delivered by Coroner Gilpin on 24th December 2024. The innocent 15 year old was killed by a single high velocity shot to his chest shot at a 45 degree angle while walking through the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast on the evening of 10th August 1975 at approximately 9.40pm.
Two local women, Annie Miskimmin and Kathleen Faloon, who were walking with Patrick when he was shot dead, gave evidence before the original inquest in December 1979 that he was unarmed and had asked to accompany them from the Grosvenor Road to the Falls Road through the grounds of the Royal because he was afraid.
The family of Patrick Crawford, including his father Patrick, always believed that he was shot dead by the British army in the grounds of the RVH by a high velocity shot. Patrick Crawford’s sister, Maggie Crawford and the family campaigned tirelessly for 40 years for a fresh inquest and achieved this decision from the Attorney General John Larkin in 2015.
The fresh inquest opened in March 2022 and resumed in March 2024 with evidence continuing up to the cut off date under the Legacy Act 2023 of 30th April 2024. The Verdict was delivered in December 2024. The Coroner’s Ruling on Anonymity issued on 29th May 2025. On the same date the Coroner formally closed the inquest.
In December 2024, the Coroner found that Patrick Crawford was shot dead on 10th August 1975 by an unidentified member of the British army with a high velocity bullet from the roof of the maternity building inside the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital. The Coroner also concluded that Master Crawford was an innocent 15 year old schoolboy who was not involved with paramilitaries or paramilitary activities and posed no threat.
The Coroner’s Verdict corrected the public record in relation to the teenager’s fatal killing in circumstances where erroneous information had existed in the public domain that Patrick had been killed either in crossfire or in a feud, allegations strenuously disputed by his family for 50 years.
The Coroner also concluded that the British army were in almost complete control of the RVH buildings and grounds at the time and that up to 9 soldiers were in the vicinity at the time of the fatal shooting. He confirmed that 2 of these soldiers had provided statements of evidence to the 1979 inquest but were now deceased.
He also concluded that the other 7 soldiers, who were part of an army foot patrol in the area, had never been identified by the Ministry of Defence either at the time of the 1979 inquest nor during the course of the 2 years of the fresh inquest from 2022 to 2024.
On the 29th of May 2025 at Laganside Courthouse the Coroner Gilpin J removed the anonymity of the 2 soldiers previously known as PC02 and PC03, naming them in a revised judgment as Colour Sergeant Hugh Montgomery McGarva 1 Royal Highland Fusiliers (PCO2) and Fusilier John William Ingles 1 Royal Highland Fusiliers Redford Barracks Edinburgh (PC03). These 2 soldiers were named in the updated Verdict on 10th June 2025 as deceased soldiers who were present in the aftermath of the shooting but neither of them were identified as the army shooter.
In the 85 page Verdict delivered in December 2024 the Coroner further concluded that the original police and Royal Military Police investigations had failed to collate and secure critical evidence.
To compound the case a local man was wrongfully charged and prosecuted for the murder of Patrick Crawford some 3 years later in 1978 on the basis of a false confession statement taken in Castlereagh Police Holding Centre. This murder case was only stopped by the DPP just before the trial in 1979 because of contradictions in the ballistic and pathology evidence as against the false confession. As the Coroner has now found, Patrick Crawford was killed by a high velocity bullet to the chest shot at an angle. The false confession taken in Castlereagh stated that Patrick had been shot in close proximity by a low velocity gunshot from a handgun. The family of the man wrongfully charged and prosecuted with the murder have now requested that his case be reviewed. This false confession was put in front of the original inquest jury in 1979 despite the prosecution decision to stop the murder case.
In December 2024, the Ministry of Defence sought time till January 2025 to consider appealing the verdict by Coroner Gilpin.
No appeal against the Coroner’s Verdict was ever lodged by the Minister of Defence. The Coroner’s Verdict delivered in December 2024 that the army was responsible for the unjustified killing remains unchallenged.
Maggie Crawford, sister of Patrick, on behalf of the Crawford siblings who were in attendance at court to hear the Ruling on Anonymity on 29th May 2025 said today;
“The Verdict and the Anonymity Ruling in Patrick’s case, resulting in the naming of 2 military witnesses, is important to us as a family as it is about the transparency of the court process. Here we are, nearly 50 years later, with the record finally corrected regarding what happened to our Patrick in August 1975.
It is a great sadness to us that our father, Patrick senior, did not live to see this Verdict and Ruling. Our mother Martha was shot dead 3 years before Patrick and both their deaths could have destroyed our family, our father, and the surviving 9 brothers and sisters. But our father did not let that happen. Not only did he keep us together as a family but he also campaigned for a proper investigation about the true circumstances of Patrick’s killing.
The truth will out even if it takes 50 years. Both our parents and Patrick can now rest in peace. We as a family hope these 2 court rulings are useful for all the other families who seek the truth were . If the state is going to shoot dead innocent civilians, including children, then it must be held to account no matter how long it takes.”
Contact
Patricia Coyle
Solicitor
Harte Coyle Collins
Solicitors & Advocates
02890-278227
e mail info@harteccoylecollins.com
