Page 27 - Patrick Rooney News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Patrick Rooney, nine, Hugh McCabe, 20, Samuel McLarnon, 27, and Michael Lynch, 28, were shot during disorder in Belfast in 1969.

BBC News By Julian O'Neill Published image captionNine-year-old Patrick Rooney was the first child killed in the Troubles Police officers who killed four people at the outset of the Troubles were never held to account for their actions due to investigative failings, a report has found. The victims included a nine-year-old boy, Patrick Rooney. The police ombudsman also stated the use of machine guns by officers to deal with rioting in Belfast in 1969 was "disproportionate and dangerous". No former officers can be prosecuted due to a lack of evidence. The ombudsman, Marie Anderson, has publishe...

Police blundered at the dawn of Northern Ireland’s Troubles by using vehicle-mounted machine guns in residential areas and not effectively investigating the ensuing deaths, including that of the first child killed in the conflict, according to a new report. The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) committed “significant operational and investigative failures” during the killing of four people in Belfast on 14 and 15 August 1969, the police ombudsman...

Relatives of four Catholic civilians shot dead by the RUC have broadly welcomed a Police Ombudsman report that found there was "no effective investigation" into the deaths.

However, investigators were unable to determine which vehicle had fired the shot. “The evidence also indicates that the officers who crewed the Shorlands were insufficiently trained in the use of the Browning machine guns, and that there was a lack of clear instruction as to how the weapons could be used to control public order without risking the lives of innocent bystanders,” Mrs Anderson said. Mr McCabe was a soldier who had been at home in Divis on leave when he was fatally wounded. Mrs Anderson concluded he was most likely to have been shot by one of two police marksmen positio...