BRITAIN’S armed forces have been accused of another cover-up after it emerged that soldiers shot dead a man in Belfast in 1972 whose death was then blamed on the IRA.

Factory foreman Thomas Mills was killed on July 18 that year in the Ballygomartin Road area where he worked.

The unarmed Protestant civilian’s death was pinned on the IRA, but legacy research organisation Paper Trail uncovered a British army logbook which it says shows that he was in fact shot dead by soldiers from the King’s Regiment.

Paper Trail spokesman Ciaran MacAirt said that the shooting of Mr Mills was “but one of a number of killings of unarmed civilians by the King’s Regiment which were covered up.”

He condemned the British government’s decision to grant an amnesty and immunity for crimes committed during the period of the so-called Troubles.

Mr Mills was killed just over an hour after a member of the King’s Regiment was shot dead by the IRA at an army observation post in West Belfast.

Military logs from the 39th Infantry Brigade state that soldiers had “fired 6 x 7.62 [high velocity bullets] at a gunman seen in Moyard — one hit claimed.”

Minutes later, King’s Regiment records reported that a medical officer had been dispatched to Ballygomartin, where a man had sustained gunshot wounds. Two minutes later, the regiment reported that the watchman, later named as Mr Mills, was dead.

A further report, contradicted by evidence, claimed that Mr Mills was “holding a pistol that went off.”

The British army then asked for an intelligence trace on the victim, in what researchers believe was an attempt to connect him to criminality or the IRA. 

However, according to the files, intelligence personnel found no trace on Mr Mills.

The new evidence has been sent to lawyers before a fresh inquest into Mr Mills death is held in October.

Mr MacAirt said that the killing was either a terrible mistake or part of a revenge attack by British soldiers.

He noted that the same regiment had been involved in a series of cover-ups during Britain’s “dirty war” in Ireland.

“These killings include the murder of 13-year-old Martha Campbell and the Springhill-Westrock massacre.

“The same regiment also played its part in the cover-up of the Kelly’s Bar massacre and the murder of Anthony Davidson, which are covered too in soon-to-be-published Paper Trail investigations,” Mr MacAirt said.

“The blatant murders and cover-ups by the King’s Regiment, which we are exposing nearly half a century later, did little but inflame the conflict in 1972 and compound the grief of the victims’ families. 

“Nearly half a century later, the British state has devastated these families again as it announced plans to bury its war crimes and protect its killers in uniform.”