THE PSNI HAS apologised to the family of Patrick Rooney, the first child killed in the Troubles.

The family will also receive “significant compensation,” the High Court in Belfast heard this morning.

The settlement is in relation to legal action taken by Patrick’s 88-year-old mother against the PSNI – she was not able to attend this morning due to ill health.

On 15 August, 1969, the RUC entered the Divis Flats complex in west Belfast in three armoured vehicles and opened fire from vehicle-mounted machine guns.

Patrick’s parents, Neilly and Alice, sheltered their six children in a back bedroom in an attempt to keep them safe.

The RUC discharged around 200 rounds, striking at least 13 properties.

However, a bullet permeated the wall of the bedroom the Rooney family were sheltering in and Patrick was shot through the head.

His killing was witnessed by his entire family.

Patrick was the eldest of the six siblings at the time.

His parents were unable to secure an ambulance or medical assistance and his father and members of the public had to carry Patrick for some distance to reach an ambulance.

Madden and Finucane Solicitors today said that the RUC “took steps to ensure that there would be no adequate or effective investigation into Patrick’s killing”.

Hugh McCabe, aged 20, was also killed on 15 August, 1969, and a Police Ombudsman investigation into the deaths resulted in two former RUC officers being reported to the Public Prosecution Service in 2018.

However, the Public Prosecution Service directed in 2020 that there would be no prosecution over the fatal shootings.

At the time, Madden and Finucane Solicitors said it would “study the reasons given for today’s decision closely with the family and assess their options, and shall press ahead with separate civil proceedings against the Chief Constable”. 

This morning, an agreed settlement was announced in the High Court in Belfast.

In a statement today, the family’s solicitor Katie McAllister, of Madden and Finucane, remarked that it has taken 56 years for a chief constable to offer an apology for the unlawful death of Patrick Rooney.

She added that his death happened “in the most violent, indiscriminate and avoidable circumstances”.

“Patrick was killed in his own bedroom, the very place that he should have been most safe from danger,” she added.

McAllister further remarked that “death or serious injury was the inevitable consequence of the RUC’s shocking and abhorrent conduct”.

“While a financial settlement does not right the RUC’s wrongdoing, we are satisfied that we have been able to secure a significant settlement, the terms of which are confidential, and moreover an apology for Mrs Rooney, who is now 88 years of age.”