– Francis Quinn
The men were shot in an area of open ground behind Springfield Park.
Mrs Justice Keegan said that the two men had entered a field to assist an injured man and added that neither was injured or in the vicinity of anyone with a gun.
She said: “I find on the balance of probabilities that both deceased men were shot by the British Army.”
Relatives of Father Hugh Mullan (Rebecca Black/PA)
She said that the force used was not justified.
She said the state had failed to demonstrate that its use of force had been justified.
The coroner also rejected a suggestion from the Ministry of Defence that the men may have been shot by a UVF sniper from the nearby Springmartin area.