Pub raid customer wins compensation

Compensation case was setlled at Belfast High Court

A man who was drinking in a County Armagh pub when undercover police burst in traumatising customers has been awarded court compensation.

The incident happened at the Derryhirk Inn near Lurgan in March 1997.

Undercover police burst in the bar after opening fire in its car park.

Customers said the officers were wearing paramilitary style uniforms and claimed they feared for their lives.

The people involved in this incident were very traumatised by what happened

Solicitor Malachy Hagan

On Wednesday the RUC agreed to pay Mr Gary McMahon, from Old Portadown Road in Lurgan, an undisclosed sum.

The 32-year-old technical manager, claimed he suffered post traumatic stress disorder afterwards.

Over 80 compensation claims were lodged against the RUC and it is believed Mr McMahon's case is the first to be settled.

In his statement he said police discharged firearms before entering the bar in an agressive manner which caused him to fear for his life.

He said he was held on the floor at gunpoint and was not released for two hours.

Solicitor Malachy Hagan, who is handling seven other claims including one by Mr McMahon's wife, said: "The people involved in this incident were very traumatised by what happened.

"As a result many of them are very reluctant to go out at night. Their fear is not manufactured, it's genuine."

Mr Hagan added: "Mr McMahon is happy with the settlement and it is hoped the outstanding cases will be satisfactorily resolved in the near future.

"However, the claimants would have preferred their cases to have been settled long before this."

Insufficient evidence

A few days after the incident the RUC announced they had found a number of guns.

The IRA admitted the weapons belonged to them but said they had been buried in a completely different area.

The Independent Commission for Police Complaints oversaw an RUC investigation into the incident.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions later announced that none of the police officers involved was being prosecuted.

He said there was "insufficient evidence to afford a reasonable prospect of conviction."