A former SAS hero is to be jailed for refusing to appear at the inquest of three members of an IRA ‘death squad’, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The elite ex-soldier, who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has been found in contempt of court after saying he was too ill to be cross-examined about the shooting of the three IRA hitmen in an SAS ambush more than 30 years ago.
The gunmen were en route to murder a member of the security forces when SAS soldiers opened fire in the village of Coagh, Co Tyrone in June 1991.
One of those killed, Tony Doris, 21, was a cousin of Northern Ireland’s current First Minister Michelle O’Neill, the first republican to hold the post, who is also the vice president of Sinn Fein. She has previously demanded ‘justice’ for the families of those killed in the Troubles.
The other two IRA gunmen – Peter Ryan, 37, and Lawrence McNally, 38 – are believed to have been linked to 43 murders.
The former SAS soldier, who can only be identified as ‘Soldier F’, has provided a witness statement for an inquest into the IRA men’s deaths and has agreed to answer written questions.
But he has declined to give oral evidence to a coroner’s court in Belfast because of his poor mental health.
He has battled PTSD since 2002 and two leading psychiatrists agree he is not fit to give evidence in person.
But now, in an extraordinary intervention, a court in Scotland – where Soldier F now lives – has ruled that he is in contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in jail. It was asked by Northern Ireland’s top coroner to pursue the ex-soldier.
The former serviceman, who is in his 60s, could be hauled to prison within weeks if an appeal fails later this month. It would be the first time a veteran has been jailed for refusing to cooperate with a so-called ‘Legacy’ inquest.
The former serviceman is not the person also known as Soldier F who faces two charges of murder over the shooting of 13 protesters in Londonderry in 1972, on what is known as Bloody Sunday.
A source close to the ex-serviceman last night said: ‘He was a loyal, dedicated soldier who was on the front line of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Now, more than 30 years later, he’s just collateral damage.
‘Soldier F is proud of his service, of what he did to keep the peace, but he feels he’s been abandoned, sacrificed for something bigger.’
The shocking case has reignited claims of a ‘witch-hunt’ against veterans who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who served with the Scots Guards in Northern Ireland, said the jail sentence was ‘appalling’.
‘This is a very political move, which we have seen already many times with British soldiers. The evidence he gives in sworn testimony must surely be enough,’ he said. ‘What is actually being planned is some kind of personal humiliation. I am concerned that what is going on now isn’t about evidence but it’s about persecution.’
Colonel Richard Kemp, who also served in Northern Ireland, said: ‘It is a disgusting thing to do to somebody who has put his own life on the line, who has served his country in good faith and was part of a security force that prevented Northern Ireland from breaking into civil war. It seems unjust and excessive to sentence him to jail for something like that.’
The covert mission in Coagh came amid a deadly cycle of shootings and bombings in Co Tyrone in the early 1990s.
Ryan, McNally and Doris were all members of the IRA’s feared East Tyrone Brigade. It was one of the IRA’s most effective units, killing dozens in a bombing campaign on Army bases and police stations.
Ryan, who had been on the run from prison for the previous ten years, was regarded as one of the IRA’s deadliest hitmen.
At 7.30am on June 3, 1991, a maroon Vauxhall Cavalier, driven by Doris and with Ryan and McNally in the passenger seats, sped into Coagh, a tiny village in Mid Ulster, and swung into a car park next to the Hanover House Hotel.
What the IRA cell did not know was that their movements were being tracked – and they had driven straight into a meticulously planned SAS ambush.
Detectives with the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s Special Branch had earlier received intelligence – possibly from an IRA informer – that they were plotting to kill an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier whom republicans suspected was linked to a loyalist group. An undercover SAS squad was deployed to intercept them.
In a typically daring ploy, one of the British soldiers, later known as Soldier L, stood near the UDR soldier’s parked car reading a newspaper, in a bid to trick the IRA gunmen into thinking their ‘target’ was waiting to pick up a friend on their way to work.
While he acted as a decoy, a group of his heavily armed comrades hid nearby in a specially adapted Bedford lorry. Another SAS squad, known as the ‘arrest group’, waited behind the hotel.
One of the SAS men, known as Soldier H, who was providing surveillance from inside the hotel, has told the inquest that as the Cavalier stopped, one of the IRA gunmen inside the vehicle aimed a rifle at Soldier L.
This, it is claimed, prompted Soldier H to issue a ‘go order’ and the hidden SAS men opened fire, while Soldier L flung himself behind a wall. As up to 150 bullets were fired, the IRA gunmen’s car careered out of the car park but crashed into a wall and a parked Volkswagen.
At some point, the ‘arrest group’, which included Soldier F, also fired at the car, which burst into flames. The incident, and others at the time, led to accusations that the British Army was operating a ‘shoot-to-kill’ strategy.
An inquest was launched in 2022 to examine whether lethal force was justified – one of a string of controversial ‘Legacy’ inquiries into killings that took place during the Troubles. The inquests were launched after years of campaigning by relatives whose family members were killed during the conflict.
Opening the inquest, Brett Lockhart KC, counsel for the coroner, said: ‘Two of the men got out of the car, according to soldiers who have given statements, and were carrying rifles.
‘They were both shot at by other soldiers who had been in the vicinity of the Bedford lorry. Both the Volkswagen and the Cavalier burst into flames. All three bodies … were burnt beyond recognition.’
Mr Justice Humphreys, Northern Ireland’s top coroner, has described Soldier F as ‘an important and central witness’ because he helped plan the operation and was one of the soldiers who opened fire.
Soldier F joined the regular Army before becoming a special forces soldier in his mid-20s. He is a Northern Ireland expert who was decorated for his courage under fire, and is a father and a grandfather.
His PTSD has manifested itself with flashbacks, nightmares and depression. By February 2018, he was in the care of an NHS consultant psychiatrist who diagnosed his PTSD as being moderate to severe.
The MoS understands that two of Britain’s leading forensic psychiatrists – Professor Seena Fazel and Professor Chris Fox – have declared that his mental health is too fragile for him to give oral evidence and face cross-examination at the inquest into the events at Coagh.
In 2022, Soldier F provided a witness statement about what happened but applied to be excused from giving oral evidence on medical grounds.
His plea was rejected, and in June 2023 the High Court of Northern Ireland issued a subpoena requiring him to give evidence to the Belfast hearing the following month.
When he still did not attend, a ‘certificate of default’ was issued and lawyers for Mr Justice Humphreys went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh in a bid to pursue Soldier F for his non-attendance.
Last week, Scottish judge Lady Carmichael jailed him for contempt, saying: ‘I have determined that the appropriate sentence in the case is one of six months’ imprisonment.’
The media was banned from reporting the sentence until late on Friday.
The source close to Soldier F added: ‘The saddest thing of all is that because he’s still got that military mindset, he’s already packed his prison bag: flip-flops, thick T-shirts, trainers, two sets of pyjama bottoms.
‘It’s just like the old SAS days when he always had a grab bag waiting to go in case his cover was blown.’
In 2022, an interview with a former Special Branch officer emerged in which he claimed that McNally and Ryan ‘had 43 murders under their belts as a team’.
The pair were both said to have been fuelled by revenge after their brothers were murdered by loyalists.
Another detective claimed Ryan was carrying a tomahawk axe, which he planned to use to ‘finish off’ the UDR soldier they were targeting.
The IRA trio were immortalised by hardline republicans in an IRA song called Ambush At The Bridge.
Doris is buried in a cemetery not far from Michelle O’Neill’s home. His headstone declares that he was ‘killed on active service’.
Speaking in 2022, Ms O’Neill – whose maiden name is Doris – said the Coagh shooting was not investigated by Police Service of Northern Ireland’s now defunct Historical Enquiries Team.
‘Tony’s case is ongoing,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter what background you come from, if you’ve been hurt you’ve been hurt, [and] if you’ve lost a loved one as a result of hurt being caused to anyone, you’re entitled to have your case heard and to have justice.’
Ms O’Neill’s late father Brendan Doris is believed to have been involved with the IRA’s East Tyrone Brigade in the 1970s.
It is not known what his role was, but he was interned at the height of the Troubles because of his membership of the IRA.
Not just a disgrace but a political witchhunt
By Nigel Ely, ex-SAS soldier
In all the years the British Army has been protecting lives in Northern Ireland, this must be the final insult.
Jailing a now-elderly soldier, with a history of psychiatric problems, for failing to attend a coroner’s court is not just a disgrace but tantamount to a political witchhunt.
He is yet another sop to Sinn Fein’s republican lynch mob, for whom no amount of retributional blood will be enough. The Unionist community, meanwhile, are sick of knowing that paramilitaries who wreaked havoc on both sides of the Irish Sea will escape similar punishment for acts of terror.
The IRA gunmen killed 33 years ago by an SAS ‘arrest squad’ had killed before and, according to intelligence, were on their way to assassinate a security forces member. One gunman was the cousin of Michelle O’Neill, now Northern Ireland’s First Minister.
Those SAS men were life-savers: the very bravest of us all. And, in my experience as a former SAS member, they always did things by the book – even when it put them in a more dangerous position.
We should be celebrating them as heroes, not interrogating them. We cannot know what atrocities that terrorist cell may have carried out had they not been stopped.
I’ve been around soldiers like these for more than 40 years, and I can tell you this: none pulled the trigger without just cause. Being in this elite squad is tough, and involves having to endure the most hostile of environments, including behind enemy lines.
That’s why this case and the many other investigations into the British soldiers who fought in the Troubles is nothing more than using the law as a weapon. It will have a devastating impact not just on the lives of those caught up in it today, but also on the future of the British Army at a perilous time.
I know people with sons in the Army who won’t join the SAS because of the hassle and pressure which might dog them later. Young SAS warriors have to get lawyered up before they act.
Over the last 30 years, both Labour and the Conservatives have broken a generation of soldiers. They are the ones who should stand trial for war crimes.
Soldier F should be nowhere near a courtroom and, like the rest of the old and the bold, be allowed to get on with what’s left of his life in peace.
Nigel Ely is ex-SAS and a bestselling author who served in tours in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and in the Persian Gulf
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
