Search

06 Sept 2025

Davison inquest preparations face delays over disclosure

Davison inquest preparations face delays over disclosure

Pressure on police resources has delayed preparation work for an inquest into the death of a former Provisional IRA commander in Belfast.

It comes just months before a legislative deadline for a number of inquests dealing with deaths from Northern Ireland’s troubled past.

The government’s legacy act states that those inquests which have not reached the point of verdict by May 1 2024 will be discontinued.

This has led to an increased demand on the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Ministry of Defence to supply documentation around those deaths.

A preliminary hearing in the inquest into the death of Gerard “Jock” Davison in 2015 was told on Friday that while work had commenced on the disclosure of material, the subject expert is not currently available.

Mr Davison, 47, was shot dead in the Markets area of Belfast as he walked to work in May 2015.

He had been involved in a personal dispute with other republicans.

Three months after Mr Davison was killed, former IRA man Kevin McGuigan was murdered in a shooting in nearby Short Strand.

Coroner Paddy McGurgan is presiding over inquests into both deaths.

Neither of those inquests are impacted by the legislative cut-off date for legacy inquests because the deaths happened after April 10 1998.

On Friday, Belfast Coroner’s Court heard no timescales can be given for when PSNI disclosure will be completed in Mr Davison’s case.

Barrister John Rafferty, appearing for the PSNI, said the marking up phase of sensitive material for the inquest is not yet complete.

“There are two principal issues. First is that the subject matter expert who was working on this case is unavailable to work on it at the moment,” he said.

“My understanding is that is at least in the short term and it may be in the medium term, and that is one reason why the marking up has not completed.

“And more generally in terms of other subject matter experts who may be able to work on this material, they unfortunately, on my instructions, are committed to other ongoing matters and preparing for other matters that are currently listed.

“I appreciate your honour will have heard from me and no doubt from other counsel about, and will be aware from your own diary, of the other matters which are listed, at least between now and summer to which a significant degree of resource has been attached.

“So we’re at that point of the process where marking up has been commenced. It has not been completed, it obviously needs to be complete before the material can be scheduled and then an opinion can be provided.

“I don’t think I’m in a position where I can offer a firm timetable for any of the further steps just at the moment. It’s obviously something that attention is being given to and an eye is being kept on.”

Counsel to the coroner Philip Henry said: “I appreciate the limitations of my learned friend’s instructions but I anticipate at the end of this preliminary hearing the court is going to list another one, and my learned friend then can expect to be asked for a more definitive timescale indication on the next date.”

The hearing was also told that Mr Davison’s next of kin do not wish to proceed until they have the material.

No date has yet been set for the inquest to start.

Another preliminary hearing is set to be heard on April 23.

Mr McGurgan added: “I will certainly expert an update from Mr Rafferty on that occasion”.

To continue reading this article,
please subscribe and support local journalism!


Subscribing will allow you access to all of our premium content and archived articles.

Subscribe

To continue reading this article for FREE,
please kindly register and/or log in.


Registration is absolutely 100% FREE and will help us personalise your experience on our sites. You can also sign up to our carefully curated newsletter(s) to keep up to date with your latest local news!

Register / Login

Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.

Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.