Fresh inquiry 'would be burden'

A fresh inquiry into the fatal shooting of three IRA men in 1982 would be a "burden" on the government, the Attorney General has said.

Lord Goldsmith QC was challenging a Northern Ireland Court of Appeal ruling won by the families of Gervaise McKerr, Eugene Toman and Sean Burns.

He told five Law Lords on Monday that the families were demanding an inquiry similar to the Bloody Sunday probe.

The three unarmed men were shot dead by police near Lurgan, County Armagh.

It was one of the incidents which gave rise to "shoot to kill" allegations against the security forces in Northern Ireland.

Lord Goldsmith said the Bloody Sunday inquiry was a demonstration of what a "burden" could be placed on the government by a similar investigation into the three deaths.

He said it would leave the government "doomed" to carry out something it would not be able to do because of the impossibility of complying with the "right to life" provisions of human rights law, so many years after the event.

In May 2001, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found that Article 2 of the Human Rights Convention - the right to life - had been breached by the government.

Mr McKerr's family continued their attempt to force another inquiry when no further official action followed the European ruling.