Published Wednesday, 02 December 2009
Police had previously stated that Duncan Munro McLuckie, who is currently serving life for murder in England for another killing, was refusing to co-operate with the fresh investigation into the shooting of Ulster Defence Regiment Warrant Officer Bernard Adamson in 1972.
But on Wednesday a barrister representing McLuckie told Northern Ireland's senior coroner John Leckey that he had only declined to speak to officers who visited him in HM Prison Frankland in Durham because he did not have a lawyer present.
As Mr Adamson's widow Patricia Bruce watched during a preliminary hearing in Belfast, Karen Quinlivan made clear that her client was willing to testify when the inquest commences.
"It's our view that this was a tragic accident and there had been an implication that Mr McLuckie was refusing to co-operate because he had something to hide," she said.
"That is not the case."
Ms Quinlivan went on to explain that difficulties obtaining legal aid funding had meant she had been unable to set up a video link with HMP Frankland to fully consult with her client ahead of the hearing.
While the inquest had been due to start later this month, Mr Leckey accepted her application to postpone it until the New Year to give her additional time to set up the consultation.
Attorney General Baroness Scotland has ordered a second inquest after Mr Adamson's family raised concerns about the open verdict delivered in the original hearing months after his death.
The 30-year-old father of four from Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, was hit with a live bullet on a firing range during an exercise that was supposed to involve only blank cartridges. He died two weeks later in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
No criminal charges were brought against Private McLuckie, who fired the shot from an Army issue SLR rifle.
He was later fined £43 in a military tribunal into the circumstances of the incident at the range in Letterbreen, five miles outside Enniskillen.
Warrant Officer Adamson was playing the role of an enemy target when he was shot in the side.
An initial investigation found that live rounds had somehow got mixed in with the blank cartridges that were to be used.
The inquest is now set to get under way at the end of March.