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a judicial inquiry was necessary to establish the facts surrounding the shootings 58 two days before the programme was scheduled for broadcast sir geoffrey howe telephoned the chairman of the independent broadcasting authority iba to request that the authority delay the broadcast until after the inquest on the grounds that it risked prejudicing the proceedings after viewing the programme and taking legal advice the iba decided on the morning of 28 april that death on the rock should be broadcast as scheduled howe made further representation that the documentary would be in contempt of the inquest but the iba upheld its decision 59 the programme was broadcast at 9 p m on 28 april and attracted considerable controversy the following morning the british tabloid newspapers lambasted the programme describing it as a slur on the sas and trial by television 60 several criticised the iba for allowing the documentary to be broadcast 61 over the following weeks newspapers repeatedly printed stories about the documentary s witnesses in particular carmen proetta who reported seeing mccann and farrell shot without warning by soldiers who arrived in a gibraltar police car proetta sued several newspapers for libel and won substantial damages 62 63 the sunday times conducted its own investigation and reported that death on the rock had misrepresented the views of its witnesses those involved later complained to other newspapers that the sunday times had distorted their comments 64 inquest edit unusually for gibraltar there was a long delay between the shootings and the setting of a date for the inquest the usual method for investigating sudden or controversial deaths in parts of the united kingdom and its territories eight weeks after the shootings the coroner felix pizzarello announced that the inquest would begin on 27 june 1988 two weeks later unknown to pizzarello margaret thatcher s press secretary announced that the inquest had been indefinitely postponed 65 66 the inquest began on 6 september 67 pizzarello presided over the proceedings while eleven jurors evaluated the evidence representing the gibraltar government was eric thislewaite the gibraltar attorney general the interested parties were represented by john laws qc for the british government michael hucker for the sas personnel and patrick mcgrory for the families of mccann farrell and savage inquests are non adversarial proceedings aimed at investigating the circumstances of a death the investigation is conducted by the coroner while the representatives of interested parties can cross examine witnesses where the death occurred through the deliberate action of another person the jury can return a verdict of lawful killing unlawful killing or an open verdict though inquests cannot apportion blame in the case of a verdict of unlawful killing the authorities will consider whether any prosecutions should be brought 68 69 the soldiers and mi5 officers gave their evidence anonymously and from behind a screen as the inquest began observers including amnesty international expressed concern that mcgrory was at a disadvantage as all of the other lawyers were privy to the evidence of the sas and mi5 personnel before it was given the cost of the transcript for each day s proceedings was increased ten fold the day before the inquest began 68 69 the inquest heard from 79 witnesses including police mi5 and sas soldiers as well as technical experts and eyewitnesses 70 police military and mi5 witnesses edit the first witnesses to testify were gibraltar police officers following them was mr o the senior mi5 officer in charge of operation flavius o told the inquest that in january 1988 belgian authorities found a car being used by ira operatives in brussels in the car were found a quantity of semtex detonators and equipment for a radio detonation device which led mi5 to the conclusion that the ira might use a similar device for the planned attack in gibraltar mi5 believed that the ira had been unlikely to use a blocking car an empty vehicle used to hold a parking space until the bombers bring in the vehicle containing the explosives as this entailed the added risk of multiple border crossings 71 72 o told the coroner that mccann savage and farrell had been observed by spanish authorities arriving at málaga airport but had been lost shortly afterwards and were not detected crossing into gibraltar 70 73 canepa told the inquest that contrary to mcgrory s assertions there had been no conspiracy to kill mccann savage and farrell he stated that upon learning of the ira plot from mi5 he set up an advisory committee consisting of mi5 military and police personnel as events developed the committee decided that the gibraltar police was not adequately equipped to counter the ira threat and canepa requested assistance from london the commissioner gave assurances that he had been in command of the operation against the ira at all times except for the 25 minutes of the military operation note 2 in his cross examination mcgrory queried the level of control the commissioner had over the operation he extracted from canepa that the commissioner had not requested assistance from the sas specifically canepa agreed with o that the spanish police had lost track of the ira team and that savage s arrival in gibraltar took the authorities by surprise although a police officer was stationed in an observation post at the border with instructions for alerting other officers to the arrival of the ira team canepa told the inquest that the officer had been looking for the three ira members arriving at once he told mcgrory he was unsure whether or not the officer had the details of the false passports the trio were travelling under 75 the officer from the observation post denied knowing the pseudonyms under which the ira members were travelling on cross examination he acknowledged having been provided with the pseudonyms at a briefing the night before the shootings detective chief inspector joseph ullger head of the gibraltar police special branch told the coroner that the spanish border guards had let savage through carelessness while the regular border officials on the gibraltar side had not been told to look for the ira team 76 77 soldier f a british army colonel who was in command of the sas detachment testified next 78 followed by soldier e a more junior officer who was directly responsible for the soldiers 79 the inquest then heard from the soldiers involved the sas personnel all told the coroner that they had been briefed to expect the would be bombers to be in possession of a remote detonator and that they had been told that savage s car definitely contained a bomb each soldier testified that the ira team made movements which the soldiers believed to be threatening and this prompted them to open fire mcgrory asked about the sas s policy on lethal force during cross examination he asked soldier d about allegations that savage was shot while on the ground something d strenuously denied though he stated that he had intended to continue shooting savage until he was dead 80 81 several gibraltar police officers gave evidence about the aftermath of the shootings and the subsequent police investigation immediately after the shootings the soldiers shell casings were removed from the scene making it difficult to assess where the soldiers were standing when they fired two gibraltar police officers testified to collecting the casings one for fear that they might be stolen and the other on the orders of a superior 82 other witnesses revealed that the gibraltar police had lost evidence and that the soldiers did not give statements to the police until over a week after the shootings 83 civilian witnesses edit a white renault 5 similar to that driven into gibraltar by sean savage and later suspected to contain a bomb one of the first civilian witnesses was allen feraday the principal scientific officer at the royal armaments research and development establishment he suggested that a remote detonator could reach from the scenes of the shootings to the car park in which savage had left the white renault and beyond on cross examination he stated that the aerial on the renault was not the type he would expect to be used for receiving a detonation signal and that the ira had not been known to use a remote detonated bomb without a line of sight to their target the following day soldier g told the coroner that he was not an explosives expert 84 and that his assessment of savage s car was based on his belief that the vehicle s aerial looked too new mcgrory called dr michael scott an expert in radio controlled detonation who disagreed with government witnesses that a bomb at the assembly area could have been detonated from the petrol station having conducted tests prior to testifying the government responded by commissioning its own tests which showed that radio communication between the petrol station and the car park was possible but not guaranteed 85 alan watson a british forensic pathologist carried out a post mortem examination of the bodies watson arrived in gibraltar the day after the shootings by which time the bodies had been taken to the royal navy hospital he found that the bodies had been stripped of their clothing causing difficulties in distinguishing entry and exit wounds that the mortuary had no x ray machine which would have allowed watson to track the paths of the bullets through the bodies and that he was refused access to any other x ray machine after the professor returned to his home in scotland he was refused access to the results of blood tests and other evidence which had been sent for analysis and was dissatisfied with the photographs taken by the gibraltar police photographer who had assisted him 86 87 63 at the inquest mcgrory questioned the lack of assistance given to the pathologist which watson told him was a puzzle 88 watson concluded that mccann had been shot four times once in the jaw possibly a ricochet once in the head and twice in the back farrell was shot five times twice in the face and three times in the back watson was unable to determine exactly how many times savage was shot he estimated that it was possibly as many as eighteen times watson agreed with mcgrory s characterisation that savage s body was riddled with bullets stating i concur with your word like a frenzied attack a statement which made headlines the following morning 89 90 91 watson suggested that the deceased were shot while on the ground 92 a second pathologist called by mcgrory offered similar findings two weeks later the court heard from david pryor a forensic scientist working for london s metropolitan police who had analysed the ira members clothes his analysis was hampered by the condition of the clothing pryor offered evidence which contradicted soldiers a and b about their proximity to mccann and farrell when they opened fire the soldiers claimed they were at least six feet 1 8 metres away but pryor s analysis was that mccann and farrell were shot from a distance of no more than two or three feet 0 6 or 0 9 metres 93 several eyewitnesses gave evidence three witnessed parts of the shootings and gave accounts which supported the official version of events in particular they did not witness the sas shooting any of the suspects while they were on the floor 94 witnesses from death on the rock also appeared stephen bullock repeated his account of seeing mccann and savage raise their hands before the sas shot them josie celecia repeated her account of seeing a soldier shooting at mccann and farrell while the pair were on the ground hucker pointed out that parts of celecia s testimony had changed since she spoke to death on the rock and suggested that the gunfire she heard was from the shooting of savage rather than sustained shooting of mccann and farrell while they were on the ground a suggestion celecia rejected the sas s lawyer observed that she was unable to identify the military personnel in photographs her husband had taken 95 96 maxie proetta told the coroner that he had witnessed four men three in plain clothes and one uniformed gibraltar police officer arriving opposite the petrol station on winston churchill avenue the men jumped over the central reservation barrier and farrell put her hands up after which he heard a series of shots in contrast to his wife s testimony he believed that farrell s gesture was one of self defence rather than surrender and he believed that the shots he heard did not come from the men from the police car the government lawyers suggested that the police car was driven by inspector revagliatte and carrying four uniformed police officers but proetta was adamant that the lawyers version did not make sense his wife gave evidence the following day contrary to her statement to death on the rock carmen proetta was no longer certain that she had seen mccann and farrell shot while on the ground the government lawyers questioned the reliability of proetta s evidence based on her changes and implied that she behaved suspiciously by giving evidence to death on the rock before the police she responded that the police had not spoken to her about the shootings until after death on the rock had been shown 97 asquez who provided an unsworn statement to the death on the rock team through an intermediary reluctantly appeared he retracted his statements to death on the rock which he claimed he had made up after pestering from major bob randall another death on the rock witness who had sold the programme a video recording of the aftermath of the shootings note 3 the british media covered asquez s retraction extensively while several members of parliament accused asquez of lying for the television and death on the rock of encouraging him in an attempt to discredit the sas and the british government asquez could not explain why his original statement mentioned the soldiers c and d donning berets showing identity cards and telling members of the public it s okay it s the police after shooting savage details which were not public before the inquest 99 100 verdict edit the inquest concluded on 30 september and laws and mcgrory made their submissions to the coroner regarding the instructions he should give to the jury hucker allowed laws to speak on his behalf laws asked the coroner to instruct the jury not to return a verdict of unlawful killing on the grounds that there had been a conspiracy to murder the ira operatives he allowed for the possibility that the sas personnel had individually acted unlawfully 101 mcgrory on the other hand asked the coroner to allow for the possibility that the british government had conspired to murder mccann savage and farrell which he believed was evidenced by the decision to use the sas for operation flavius the decision according to mcgrory was wholly unreasonable and led to a lot of what happened afterwards it started a whole chain of unreasonable decisions which led to the t...
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