'I have mixed emotions but I achieved what I set out to do'-Danny Bradley

The brother of a teenage IRA member killed by the British Army almost 50 years ago has said that he's achieved what he set out to do after a Coroner last week ruled ruled that killing was unjustified.
Seamus Bradley was shot by a member of the Royal Scots Regiment during what was known as Operation Motorman-a large scale British Army incursion into the no go districts of nationalist areas in Derry in the early hours of July 31, 1972.
The death was a point of major contention for almost half-a-century with the British Army claiming at the time that the teenager was armed and in a tree when he was shot. They also claimed that the deceased Creggan man suffered further injuries as he fell to the ground on a laneway outside St Mary's Church in the estate.

However, Seamus Bradley's family repeatedly maintained that he died later having been taken away from the scene in an army saracen and sustained fatal injuries whilst being subjected to torture during interrogation.
The Coroner, Judge Patrick Kinney, however ruled out both versions of the events at Laganside Court in Belfast last Thursday (August 15). The judge said he was satisfied that Seamus Bradley was killed by a soldier who got out of a Saracen, fell to one knee and opened fire, but added that he had been unable to identify the soldier responsible for the shooting.
“He was running across an open area of ground, he had no weapon and he was clearly visible,” Mr Kinney said.
The Coroner also concluded that the deceased man could not have reasonably been perceived as posing a threat of death or serious injury to the soldiers in the Army vehicle nor to anyone else and that the use of force by the soldier was “entirely disproportionate to any threat that could have been perceived.”
Furthermore, Mr Kinney said, there was no first aid or medical assistance provided by the soldiers, but if it had been there was a “reasonable prospect” that Seamus Bradley would have survived. The judge also concluded the victim was not mistreated by British Army personnel in the Saracen either by physical assault, torture or shooting.

Seamus Bradley's brother Danny who has pursued the case for decades told the Derry News: “First of all I would like to make a statement referring to my brothers first inquest in 1973. The prosecution showed a black and white picture to the jury and then turned to my father and called him a liar and said your son was not tortured.
“This same man was aware that there were coloured pictures showing that Seamus' neck was badly marked and which the black and white images failed to show.
“Seamus was stripped naked and badly beaten about the face and shot three times at close range. At the original inquest one soldier claimed that Seamus fell out of the Saracen onto his face, but the army medical officer said that never happened.
“Sadly, the police at the time did not show the Bradley family any of the pictures and it took to 2001 for the police to show nine black and white pictures. Then in 2015 the Coroners office showed us 10 coloured pictures. It can be safely be said that both the black and white and coloured pictures went missing to save the security forces embarrassment.”
Danny Bradley also told the Derry News: “I have mixed emotions but I achieved what I set out to do. That was to clear Seamus' name and that's what matters. It's not about me.”
“I also intend to send the Inquest report to the Irish Government as well as the independent ballistics report because this was a war crime. My brother was a soldier, a volunteer in the Provisional IRA. His papers were logged under 'war file' by the British Government and they have broken the Geneva Convention because they had declared war on the IRA.
“By doing so they must take responsibility for and due care of their prisoners and I will be asking for a proper investigation-something which the state failed to deliver in 1973.”

In 2012 the former Historical Enquiries Team in their examination of the Bradley case concluded that the British Army, if they were telling the truth, had acted lawfully with respect to his killing, but added that the death had never been “effectively investigated.”
Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney Justice Spokesman welcomed the Coroner's Court decision and said: “The Bradley family have been campaigning for the truth about what happened to Seamus for many years. All families bereaved by the conflict are entitled to access to the truth about the deaths of their loved ones.
“We need to see the British Government implementing the legacy mechanisms agreed at Stormont House so that families and campaigners can get access to the truth.”