A farmer killed by the Army in 1974 was an innocent man, shot in cold blood, without warning when he was no threat to anyone , a coroner has said.
Patrick McElhone (24) a farmer from Pomeroy in Co Tyrone, was shot in the back by Lance Corporal Roy Alun Jones of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Wales, in a field close to his family home.
Mr McElhone died instantly after the bullet penetrated his heart on August 7, 1974.
Mr Jones, who passed away in 2002, was charged with murder but acquitted and returned to duty.
The Ministry of Defence has since accepted Mr McElhone s death was unjustified.
Farmer shot dead was ‘an innocent young man doing a day’s work’
Updated: 21/01/2021, 4:08 pm
A farmer shot dead by a soldier was an innocent young man doing his day’s work, his brother said (Brian Lawless/PA)
A farmer shot dead by a soldier was an innocent young man doing his day’s work, his brother and sister said.
Paddy McElhone’s siblings said they still missed him after a 46-year campaign to clear his name of untruthful smears vindicated his reputation.
Suggestions he was named on a security force intelligence list targeting the IRA were unfounded, a coroner said on Thursday, and his death was unjustified.