The Five Demands

Pearse Jordan inquest verdict appealed by coroner and chief constable (BBC News Northern Ireland)

Appeals have been lodged against a High Court decision to quash the findings of an inquest into the police shooting of an IRA man more than 20 years ago.

Pearse Jordan was killed in disputed circumstances on the Falls Road in west Belfast in 1992.

Lawyers for both the coroner and chief constable are preparing challenges to the verdict.

In January, a judge indicated that a new tribunal examining Mr Jordan’s death should sit without a jury.

Mr Justice Stephens also found the PSNI responsible for a delay of up to 11 years in holding the inquest.

But as a date was fixed for a further hearing to determine whether the police are liable for any damages over the hold-up, it emerged that the judgment would be appealed.

All grounds of Mr Justice Stephens’ determination are understood to be under challenge.

Mr Jordan’s death was one of several high-profile cases in Northern Ireland involving allegations of a ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy operated by the security forces.

Witnesses claimed the police shot him in the back as he tried to flee after the stolen car he was driving was rammed.

In October 2012, a long-delayed inquest failed to reach agreement on key aspects of the case.

The jury was split on whether reasonable force was used in the circumstances, the state of belief on the part of the officer who fired the fatal shots, and whether any alternative course of action was open to him.

The dead man’s father, Hugh Jordan, then mounted a wide-ranging judicial review challenge to the outcome.

Part of the Jordan family’s challenge was to a jury sitting in such a controversial case of an alleged IRA man being killed by police.

In his judgment delivered in January, Mr Justice Stephens held that the inquest verdict should be quashed on a number of grounds.

The case is due to be heard in court in October.

Now, however, his verdict is set to be appealed, with a three-week hearing listed for October.