The shooting dead of a farmer by the Army in Northern Ireland in 1974 was “unjustified”, a coroner said.
Paddy McElhone, 24, died near his home in Limehill, Pomeroy, Co Tyrone after sustaining a wound through the back fired by a soldier from the First Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Wales.
The inquest into Mr McElhone’s death was the first in a series of coroners’ probes into deaths associated with Northern Ireland’s 30-year conflict.
It was held in Omagh courthouse in Co Tyrone.
Presiding coroner Judge Siobhan Keegan said: “On any version of events the shooting was unjustified.”
She added: “Paddy McElhone was an innocent man shot in cold blood without warning when he was no threat to anyone.”