Court cases against two retired RUC officers charged in connection with an alleged miscarriage of justice involving four Derry men 35 years ago have been adjourned until next month.
John McGahan (71) and Philip Noel Thomson (65), whose addresses were given as PSNI, Knock Road, Belfast, are charged with perverting the course of justice involving one of the four men, who became known as the “Derry Four,” who were wrongfully convicted of the killing of a British soldier in the city in 1979.
The two former RUC officers are each charged that, on a date unknown between 27 February and 2 March, 1979, with intent to pervert the course of public justice, they recorded a written statement after caution from Gerald Kieran McGowan which was not his independent account of his involvement in the murder of Lieutenant Steven Andrew Kirby.
Mr McGowan was aged 17 at the time and had just signed professional formers with Leicester City Football Club.
Both accused were due to appear at a preliminary enquiry at Derry Magistrates this morning but the case was adjourned after a defence solicitor told the court they had only recently received papers in the case and had were unable to speak to either of them as one was working abroad and the other was on holiday.
District Judge Peter King adjourned both cases until 27 June next.