An inquest in Gibraltar ruled that the authorities had acted lawfully but the European Court of Human Rights held that, although there had been no conspiracy, the planning and control of the operation was so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable.

One witness, who told "Death on the Rock" he saw a soldier fire at Savage repeatedly while he was on the ground, retracted his statement at the inquest, prompting an inquiry into the programme which largely vindicated it.

Delivering its judgement in 1995, the court found that the operation had been in violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights as the authorities' failure to arrest the suspects at the border, combined with the information given to the soldiers, rendered the use of lethal force almost inevitable.

[21] The official account states that at this point, Revagliatte's driver activated the siren on the police car to expedite the journey, intending to approach the roundabout from the wrong side of the road and turn the vehicle around.

Spanish and British authorities conducted enquiries to trace the vehicle, which—two days after the shootings—led them to a red Ford Fiesta in a car park in Marbella (50 miles [80 kilometres] from Gibraltar).

The following morning, BBC Radio 4 reported that the alleged bomb was "packed with bits of metal and shrapnel", and later carried a statement from Ian Stewart, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, that "military personnel were involved.

The IRA issued a statement later on 7 March to the effect that McCann, Savage, and Farrell were "on active service" in Gibraltar and had "access to and control over 140 pounds (64 kg)" of Semtex.

[32] At 15:30 (GMT) on 7 March, the foreign secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, made a statement to the House of Commons:[33][34] Shortly before 1:00 p.m. yesterday, afternoon [Savage] brought a white Renault car into Gibraltar and was seen to park it in the area where the guard mounting ceremony assembles.

Before leaving the car, he was seen to spend some time making adjustments in the vehicle An hour and a half later, [McCann and Farrell] were seen to enter Gibraltar on foot and shortly before 3:00 p.m., joined [Savage] in the town.

It has now been established that it did not contain an explosive device.Press coverage in the following days, after Howe's statement that no bomb had been found, continued to focus on the act planned by the IRA; several newspapers reported a search for a fourth member of the team.

In 2017 it emerged that Charles Haughey had secretly requested that the Royal Air Force fly the bodies direct to Belfast, bypassing the Republic of which he was Taoiseach.

Later that evening, a local IRA member, Kevin McCracken, was shot and allegedly then beaten to death by a group of soldiers he had been attempting to shoot at.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) agreed to maintain a minimal presence at the funeral in exchange for guarantees from the families that there would be no salute by masked gunmen.

A local priest intervened to stop the beating, but was pulled away when a military identity card was found, raising speculation that the corporals were SAS members.

[56] For technical advice, the journalists engaged Lieutenant Colonel George Styles, a retired British Army officer who was regarded as an expert in explosives and ballistics.

The following morning, the British tabloid newspapers lambasted the programme, describing it as a "slur" on the SAS and "trial by television";[60] several criticised the IBA for allowing the documentary to be broadcast.

[61] Over the following weeks, newspapers repeatedly printed stories about the documentary's witnesses, in particular Carmen Proetta, who reported seeing McCann and Farrell shot without warning by soldiers who arrived in a Gibraltar Police car.

The interested parties were represented by John Laws, QC (for the British government), Michael Hucker (for the SAS personnel), and Patrick McGrory (for the families of McCann, Farrell, and Savage).

As the inquest began, observers including Amnesty International expressed concern that McGrory was at a disadvantage, as all of the other lawyers were privy to the evidence of the SAS and MI5 personnel before it was given.

[71][72] "O" told the coroner that McCann, Savage, and Farrell had been observed by Spanish authorities arriving at Málaga Airport but had been lost shortly afterwards and were not detected crossing into Gibraltar.

As events developed, the committee decided that the Gibraltar Police was not adequately equipped to counter the IRA threat, and Canepa requested assistance from London.

On cross-examination, he stated that the aerial on the Renault was not the type he would expect to be used for receiving a detonation signal and that the IRA had not been known to use a remote-detonated bomb without a line of sight to their target.

[101] McGrory, on the other hand, asked the coroner to allow for the possibility that the British government had conspired to murder McCann, Savage, and Farrell, which he believed was evidenced by the decision to use the SAS for Operation Flavius.

If the killing of the ASU was, in fact, contemplated by those who chose the SAS, as an act of counter-terror or vengeance, that steps outside the rule of law and it was murder ... and that is a matter for the jury to consider.

[102][103]Pizzarello then summarised the evidence for the jury and instructed them that they could return a verdict of unlawful killing under any of five circumstances, including if they were satisfied that there had been a conspiracy within the British government to murder the three suspected terrorists.

[110] The same month, a journalist discovered that the Spanish side of the operation was conducted by the Foreign Intelligence Brigade rather than the local police as the British government had suggested.

In that respect, the court found that the authorities' failure to arrest the suspects as they crossed the border or earlier, combined with the information that was passed to the soldiers, rendered the use of lethal force almost inevitable.

In apparent revenge for his role in Operation Flavius, Terry and his wife were shot and seriously injured when the IRA attacked their home in Staffordshire two years later, in September 1990.

[130][131][132][133] Following Asquez's retraction of his statement to "Death on the Rock" and his allegation that he was pressured into giving a false account of the events he witnessed, the IBA contacted Thames Television to express its concern and to raise the possibility of an investigation into the making of the documentary.

[134] In their report, published in January 1989, Windlesham and Rampton levelled several criticisms at "Death on the Rock", but found it to be a "trenchant" piece of work made in "good faith and without ulterior motives".