Inquest of Derry man Kieran Doherty who was killed near border : Gardai ‘willing to engage’

Kieran Doherty was found shot dead after being bound and gagged on the Braehead Road on the outskirts of Derry on February 24, 2010.

His death was claimed by the group then known as the Real IRA, who claimed Mr Doherty was one of their members.

At yesterday’s hearing Ian Skelt QC, counsel for the Coroner, said that up until now there had only been limited correspondence with the Gardai in this matter but that they have indicated they are willing to engage properly with the inquest and as such a meeting has been set up and he would update the Coroner when this occurred.

Stephen Toal representing the Doherty family said they were becoming ‘increasingly frustrated by the delay’, considering that the first hearing in the case was held in 2012.

The Coroner Brian Sherrard said that what he hoped to do was give the family ‘some endpoint’ by fixing a date for a hearing.

Earlier yesterday, the hearing was told that the first tranche of documents from the Secretary of State’s office was available and the final tranche would be available by the end of the year.

Counsel for the Secretary of State said that once they were all available there would ‘inevitably be a Public Interest Immunity exercise’ to decide what would be redacted and other issues.

The Coroner said that he appreciated that Mr Doherty’s family may not be ‘fully alert’ to progress that was being made in the case but he was satisfied with ‘the ongoing activity’.

He proposed to set aside three weeks for the hearing but said that realistically it would be well into next year before it would be heard.

The Coroner set a date of November 7, 2022 for the inquest to begin and this was agreed by all the interested parties.

A review date was set for December 15, 2021 to see what progress had been made by that stage.