Adrian Carroll

Adrian Carroll 24 years, Armagh City, Co. Armagh, shot dead outside his home on 8 November 1983. The young man had been on his way home from work when shot. The Protestant Action Force, a cover name for the UVF, claimed they carried out the killing.

For sometime before his killing Mr Carroll suffered from harassment from Crown forces. Several weeks after his killing thirteen members of the Ulster Defence Regiment were arrested in connection with it. All had been on duty in several vehicles on the day of the shooting, and near to the area where it was carried out. Five of the UDR men were initially charged in connection with the killing, but charges against one of them were withdrawn before trial. Four of the UDR men were convicted for the killing, but after a high profile campaign by leading Unionist politicians three of the UDR men were acquitted in the 1990s on the grounds that the RUC officers involved in their interrogation had added notes and rewrote part of the accused statements after the interrogation was over. The Judge at the appeal however said there ‘was no evidence the police concocted false confessions.’ 

One UDR soldier remained in jail for the killing until his release in the late 1990s. None of the RUC officers involved in the interrogations were ever charged with any offences connected with their interrogation methods.