A government barrister has argued at the High Court that a coroner’s conclusion that SAS soldiers acted unlawfully when they shot dead four IRA men in County Tyrone in 1992 was legally flawed.

The four men, Kevin Barry O’Donnell, Sean O’Farrell, Peter Clancy and Patrick Vincent, were killed in an ambush at a church car park in Clonoe on 16 February 1992. They had just carried out a gun attack on Coalisland police station and arrived in a hijacked lorry with a heavy machine gun welded to the back. Twelve soldiers were in position and opened fire.

In February 2023, coroner Mr Justice Humphreys found that the use of lethal force was not reasonable or justified. He noted that no attempt was made to arrest the IRA members, even after they were wounded, and that the soldiers would have known the men needed to dismount the machine gun, which might have allowed arrests.

The UK government and military veterans are now seeking to have the inquest findings quashed. At a two-day hearing, Joseph Aiken KC, for the Secretary of State for Defence, said the coroner made a significant legal error in assessing the central question of whether opening fire was justified.

Mr Aiken argued that the correct legal test for self-defence was not applied and that the coroner failed to properly consider the threat posed by the IRA unit. He said the soldiers honestly believed their lives were in danger when they confronted an active service unit that had just fired an anti-aircraft machine gun and other weapons. The entire incident unfolded in about two minutes, with at least 10 IRA men, a lorry-mounted gun and other vehicles at the scene.

The barrister submitted that the coroner’s approach was unreasonable and irrational. He said that given the opportunity, the IRA members would have tried to kill the soldiers. Mr Aiken told Mr Justice McAlinden that if the court found any legal error in the Article 2 justification assessment, the inquest verdict must be quashed.

The hearing is listed for two weeks.