CIVIL CASES BROUGHT by the families of nine people killed at Ballymurphy in Belfast in 1971 against the UK’s Ministry of Defence have been settled.

At the High Court in Belfast Mr Justice Humphreys said that the settlement represented the “end of a very long process” for the families.

The amounts paid out in each case were not disclosed in court but the judge ordered the MoD to pay legal costs.

A statement from the families said they had secured “significant payment in damages” to the families of Fr Hugh Mullan, Frank Quinn, Joan Connolly, Noel Phillips, Joseph Murphy, Daniel Teggart, Edward Doherty, Joseph Corr and John Laverty.

Ten people, including a mother of eight and a Catholic priest, were killed the British Army shootings in an event that is known as the Ballymurphy Massacre. 

Last year, a fresh inquest concluded that 10 people had been killed by the British Army and that they were all innocent victims.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued an apology to the families in the House of Commons for the series of shootings over three days which came in the wake of the introduction of internment in Northern Ireland.