Annette McGavigan denied inquest by Legacy Act

The deadline for legacy inquests in the North to take place is May 1, 2024, a date "imposed" by the recently passed Legacy Act 2023.

This means because the application for a fresh inquest into the killing of Derry's Annette McGavigan (14) has been parked pending the outcome of a progressed Legacy Investigation Branch (LIB) police investigation, The McGavigan family will not now never receive the benefit of a prosecution, inquest, or civil law hearing, if the Legacy Act comes into operation.

The May 1, 2024 inquest deadline is now the subject of multiple legal challenges by relatives of  victims of the conflict including the families of Annette McGavigan (14) killed in Derry in September 1971, Thomas Burns killed in Belfast in 1972 and James McCann killed in Belfast in 1973.

According to Patricia Coyle, Solicitor of Harte Coyle Collins, the firm representing the three families, all three are alleged to have been killed by the British army.

The judicial review challenges in these cases are three of the 19 currently listed before the High Court. Some of these cases will be selected next week to be heard in November 2023. 

In one of those challenges May McGavigan, sister of Annette McGavigan, has asked the court to consider the impact of the Legacy Act on the systemic failure by the state to properly investigate and prosecute her sister’s death involving British army personnel in the 1970s in Northern Ireland.

Speaking today, on behalf of the families of Patrick Crawford and Annette McGavigan, Patricia Coyle said: "The moral and legal obligation to properly investigate and, where necessary, prosecute those responsible for the killing of innocent children is a fundamental given in a democracy.

Young Patrick Crawford.

"The Legacy Act NI 2023 will now be deprived the families of children killed in the conflict of a police investigation, the potential for prosecution and judicial scrutiny of the circumstances via inquests and civil litigation. 

"Our clients know of no society which would tolerate such a move. Our clients know of no parent who would rest until achieving some measure of public accountability and justice for the killing of their child. 

"The parents and siblings of children killed in Northern Ireland should be entitled to access all routes to justice available to parents in other legal jurisdictions. For our clients, the ICRIR is no substitute for our public police and court processes. We have a fiercely independent judiciary in Northern Ireland and our clients collectively retain their faith in the courts. 

"The brothers and sisters of Master Patrick Crawford welcome the opportunity to complete the inquest into the killing of their brother.

"The application for a fresh inquest into the killing of Annette McGavigan has been parked pending the outcome of a progressed LIB police investigation. That family will now never receive the benefit of a prosecution, inquest, or civil law hearing if the Legacy Act 2023 comes into operation. 

"The killings of these two children, Annette McGavigan (14) and Patrick Crawford (15), and many others, require proper investigation, public judicial scrutiny, and findings for the public record so that lessons can be learned not just in Northern Ireland but globally.

"Comparing the ICRIR mechanism to how the killings of children are treated in other democracies, with no statute of limitations on criminal investigations and prosecutions, no restriction on investigative resources, and scrutiny by judges via public inquests and litigation, raises fundamental questions of disparity of treatment for our clients.   

"Our clients instruct that, however sincere the intentions of those within the ICRIR, it is a flawed mechanism which does not satisfy our society’s moral or legal obligation to investigate and scrutinize the killing of innocent children.” 

Any witnesses having any information in relation to the deaths of either Annette McGavigan (1971) or Patrick Crawford (1975) which might assist the investigation and inquest process are asked to contact their solicitor Patricia Coyle of Harte Coyle Collins as soon as possible on 02890 278227.