A police spokesman yesterday (Tuesday) told an inquest into the SAS shooting of three IRA men in 1991 that vital evidence may have been destroyed while in police custody because it had been contaminated by asbestos.
A preliminary inquest into the 1991 killings of IRA men Lawrence McNally (38), Michael Ryan (37) and Tony Doris (21) was told by a police spokesman that interview notes and other evidence relating to the shootings may have been destroyed on health and safety grounds after documents kept at a storage unit at Gough barracks in Armagh were contaminated by asbestos dust.
The three IRA men died in a hail of 200 bullets after their car was ambushed by the Special Air Service in the centre of Coagh in the early hours of June 3 1991.
The police representative yesterday told the preliminary hearing that the handwritten interview notes of the soldiers and other relevant evidence could not be found and may have been destroyed because of asbestos contamination.
In an unusual move, coroner Roger McLarnon publicly reminded the court that state agencies had a duty to co-operate with inquest hearings. Mr McLarnon also asked if it would not have been proper for the evidence to have been sealed and copies kept of all the relevant documents.
The coroner ruled that the police must state what evidence, if any, had been destroyed in Gough barracks and who in authority had given permission for its destruction.
He further asked that police ensure in the future the necessary measures were taken to properly protect evidence. But solicitor Paddy Mallon, acting on behalf of the McNally family, last night warned that the police failure to provide the court with relevant evidence meant that the inquest itself was now in danger of being turned into a farce.
"The families consider that what is taking place at the minute is turning into a farce," Mr Mallon said.
"The families are increasingly concerned at the fact that the inquest is receiving little or no cooperation from the state agencies," he added.
Commenting on the revelation that evidence relating to the killing of the three IRA men had either been destroyed or could not be found, Relatives For Justice spokesman Mark Thompson said: "The central issues in all of these cases are that the Ministry of Defence and the Police Service of Northern Ireland are withholding vital material from both the coroner and the families' legal team.
"To at this stage introduce or offer this excuse is an insult to our intelligence.
"Why, when these documents were first sought over a year ago, did this claim not arise?
"But yet they are now revealed when possibly the coroner might seek and rule that they are relevant to the inquests."
This case is not the first time the British state has had to admit that it had destroyed evidence relating to controversial killings.
In July 2001 the Ministry of Defence admitted that it had destroyed two British army weapons which had been due to be introduced as evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
A subsequent police investigation confirmed that 29 army weapons used on Bloody Sunday had been destroyed, while the whereabouts of 17 others were unknown.
In the same year it also emerged that a Browning pistol used to kill Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane had been inexplicably removed from a forensic laboratory and handed over to the British army, with vital forensic evidence subsequently being destroyed.
A police spokeswoman last night said she could not comment on the destruction of evidence relating to the Coagh killings because of the ongoing legal proceedings.
