Bids to compel former British soldier to testify at inquest for IRA men reach ‘end of the line’

The former serviceman is not the same person as the Soldier F who is facing two counts of murder over the shooting of 13 civil rights protesters in Derry in 1972, an event known as Bloody Sunday.

The bulk of evidence has already been heard in the Coagh inquest, apart from Soldier F’s testimony (PA)

Legal efforts to compel a former British soldier to give evidence to an inquest into the shooting of three IRA men have probably reached the end of the line, a coroner has conceded.

Mr Justice Michael Humphreys had attempted to force the veteran, known as Soldier F, to testify in the inquest into the deaths of Peter Ryan, Tony Doris and Lawrence McNally in Coagh, Co Tyrone, in June 1991.