Nugent, Application for Judicial Review (Re a Decision by the Coroner) [2026] NICA 16 (16 April 2026)

Executive summary

The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland heard an appeal in a judicial review concerning a coroner’s inquest findings arising from the 3 June 1991 shooting of Anthony Doris in Coagh. The judgment sets out the appellant’s challenge to specific findings about Soldier B’s use of lethal force, the Yellow Card, and article 2 ECHR compliance, but the source text provided is truncated before the court’s final disposition.

Key points

• Appellant: Ms Roisin Nugent, daughter of the deceased Anthony (Tony) Doris; respondents included the coroner, Soldier B, and the Ministry of Defence.
• The appeal challenged only a subset of the coroner’s findings relating to Soldier B, not the actions of Soldiers A, C, or D.
• The coroner found the force used was justified, that Soldier B honestly and reasonably believed lethal force was necessary, and that the actions were within the Yellow Card guidance.
• The appellant argued misdirection on article 2, failure to apply Bennett v UK, failure properly to engage with the Yellow Card, and irrationality/inadequate reasons.
• The provided text does not include the court’s final holding on the appeal, so no outcome beyond the issues and findings can be stated from the source text.
• No sanctions, export-control, or national-security regulatory issue is addressed; the relevance is confined to a historical security-force operation and inquest review.

Why it matters

For sanctions and geopolitical risk audiences, the case is mainly relevant as Northern Ireland legacy litigation involving military use of force, article 2 duties, and scrutiny of state action in counter-insurgency settings. It does not create a sanctions or export-control rule, but it illustrates how historic security operations can still generate appellate litigation and reputational risk for state actors.

Implications

Compliance and litigation teams should treat the case as a reminder that legacy incidents involving military or police force can remain justiciable decades later, with detailed scrutiny of operational judgments, rules of engagement, and evidential reasoning. Because the source text is truncated before the outcome, any strategic assessment should wait for the final holding before drawing conclusions about appellate standards or coroner decision-making limits.