TEN people killed by British soldiers in west Belfast 50 years ago were “entirely innocent,” a coroner ruled today.

The British Army has been found to be responsible for nine of the 10 deaths in August 1971, which included a mother-of-eight and a Catholic priest.

Presiding coroner Justice Keegan said that it was a “highly charged and difficult environment” in Northern Ireland at the time.

Despite this she ruled that the use of force by soldiers had been “disproportionate” in the nine deaths the British Army was found responsible for.

She ruled out any paramilitary involvement by any of those killed, describing them as “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing on the day in question.”

There was applause in the courtroom as she made that pronouncement.

Parish priest Father Hugh Mullan, 38, and Frank Quinn, 19, were shot in the Springfield Park area of Ballymurphy around 9pm on August 9.

The coroner found that they were killed by shots fired by soldiers and that the force used was not justified.

Around the same time, outside an army barracks at the Henry Taggart Hall in Divismore Park, Noel Philips, 19, Joseph Murphy, 41, Joan Connolly, 44, and Daniel Teggart, 44, were fatally wounded by gunfire.

The coroner found that these killings were not justified, and that the victims were “innocent” and unarmed.

“The Army had a duty to protect lives and minimise harm, and the use of force was clearly disproportionate,” she said.

The following day, Eddie Doherty, 31, died after being shot in the Whiterock Road as he came across an encounter between soldiers and protesters who had erected a barricade across the road.

The coroner ruled that the use of force in shooting Mr Doherty was disproportionate.

She also rejected claims that he had been throwing petrol bombs at the time.

“He was an innocent man who posed no threat,” she said.

In the fourth incident, on the third day of shooting, Joseph Corr, 43, and John Laverty, 20, were shot in the Whiterock Road area in the early hours of the morning. Mr Corr died from his injuries 16 days later.

The coroner said  that the military had failed to establish an adequate justification for the use of lethal force in killing Mr Corr and Mr Laverty.

She concluded that the two men were shot by the British Army and there was no evidence that they could have been shot by anyone else.

She also rejected claims that the pair were gunmen who had been firing at soldiers.

In the fifth incident, former soldier John McKerr, 49, was shot later that morning in Westrock Drive, close to Corpus Christi Church, as he took a break from maintenance work. He died of his injuries on August 20.

Mrs Justice Keegan said that he was an entirely innocent man but there was not enough evidence for her to determine where the shot that killed him came from, or whether it was fired by the military or paramilitaries.

She said that it was “shocking” that there was no adequate investigation into his killing afterwards.

Sinn Fein’s deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill praised the victims’ families for their dignity and determination to uncover the truth.

“What happened in Ballymurphy was state murder,” Ms O'Neill said, “and for decades the British government has covered it up.

“As the findings from the inquest were being read, the British government was announcing its plans to legislate to cover up its role in the conflict and to put current and former British soldiers beyond justice and the law.”

Belfast North MP John Finucane — whose father was killed at his home by Loyalist paramilitaries in 1989 — said on social media today: “Innocent! For 50 years they never gave up.

“Today the Ballymurphy families heard what they always knew: their loved ones, murdered by the British state, were entirely innocent.

“Today the truth won.”