Daniel Hegarty was shot and killed by a soldier in 1972.
The family of a teenager shot dead in Londonderry in 1972 successfully challenged the decision not to prosecute the soldier who killed him.
Daniel Hegarty was 15 years old when a soldier shot him twice in the head.
The Court of Appeal has now overturned that decision.
At his trial on Thursday, Lord Justice Treacy said it came after “anxious scrutiny” of the details.
The appeal was filed by Daniel’s sister, Margaret Brady.
Daniel Hegarty’s sister Margaret Brady says her family will continue to fight for justice
Speaking to reporters outside of court, Brady said she was “shocked” by the ruling and her legal team welcomed the decision.
“We are going to keep fighting,” he said.
biker operation
Daniel, who was a laborer, was shot during an army operation in the Creggan area of Derry on July 31, 1972.
It was during Operation Motorman, the name given to a military operation by the Army to recover the “forbidden zones” installed by republican paramilitaries in towns and cities in Northern Ireland.
At the time it was the largest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956.
Daniel’s cousin Christopher Hegarty, 16, was injured in the same incident.
An initial investigation was carried out in 1973 and recorded an open verdict.
The second inquest was ordered by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland in 2009 after an examination by police detectives in the Historical Investigations Team.
In 2007, the UK government apologized to the Hegarty family for describing Daniel as a terrorist.
Problem Legacy Invoice
The ruling comes as the UK government is due to introduce legislation dealing with the legacy of the riots in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Trouble (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill offers conditional amnesty to those charged with murder and other trouble-related offences.
Under recent amendments to the bill, investigations related to the conflict must be concluded by May 1, 2024.
Any ongoing investigation that has not reached a verdict or finding would be closed.
The bill would create a new information retrieval body, headed by a high-level judicial figure, to produce reports on hundreds of incidents prior to 1998 in which people were killed or seriously injured.
The bill is opposed by all of Northern Ireland’s major political parties, as well as groups representing bereaved families and victims of the riots.