Evidence police in Belfast colluded with loyalists in the Troubles, report finds

Joanne Maxwell, Laura Raffo and Mairead Gibson – daughters of Christy Doherty, a victim in the attack on Sean Graham bookmakers – with a copy of the police ombudsman’s report. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

Evidence of “collusive behaviour” between police and loyalist paramilitary groups related to murders during the Troubles have been uncovered by a watchdog investigation.

Marie Anderson, the police ombudsman for Northern Ireland, said she was “deeply concerned” by the “significant failures” she had uncovered in her investigation into murders and attempted murders carried out by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in south Belfast in the 1990s.