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.
Eight loyalist attacks attributed to the UDA or its Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) cover name were examined in the ombudsman’s 344-page report published on Tuesday. Eleven people were murdered in the attacks, including five who lost their lives in the attack at the Sean Graham bookmaker in February 1992.
Among her findings, Anderson said Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) files relating to the bookmaker massacre had been deliberately destroyed. She also said the use by RUC special branch of informants who had been involved in murders was “totally unacceptable”.
Although there was no evidence that police had received information that would have allowed them to prevent the attacks, the ombudsman questioned why no such intelligence was received, given that special branch had a network of informants within the UDA/UFF.
An appeal court judgment in 2020 has limited the scope of the ombudsman to accuse former officers of the criminal offence of collusion with paramilitaries. Acknowledging this limitation, Anderson said she had identified conduct within the RUC that amounted to “collusive behaviours”.
She said the long-held concerns of bereaved families and survivors about RUC conduct, including complaints of collusion with paramilitaries, were “legitimate and justified”.
Anderson said “collusive behaviours” identified in her report included:
Intelligence and surveillance failings that led to loyalist paramilitaries obtaining military-grade weaponry in a 1987 arms shipment
A failure to warn two men of threats to their lives
A failure to retain records and the deliberate destruction of files relating to the attack at Sean Graham bookmaker
The failure to maintain records about the deactivation of weapons, “indicating a desire to avoid accountability for these sensitive and contentious activities”
The failure of police to exploit all evidential opportunities
Failures by special branch to disseminate intelligence to murder investigation teams
Absence of control and oversight in the recruitment and management of informants
Unjustifiable and continued use by special branch of informants involved in serious criminality, including murder and “turning a blind eye” to such activities.
A senior PSNI officer said the report made “uncomfortable reading” and apologised to the families of those killed and injured.
The murders and attempted murders were carried out between 1990 and 1998. All the victims were Catholic. Christy Doherty, Jack Duffin, Peter Magee, Willie McManus and 15-year-old James Kennedy all died in the betting shop attack.
The report also covered the murders of Harry Conlon and Aidan Wallace in 1991, Michael Gilbride in 1992, Martin Moran in 1993, Theresa Clinton in 1994 and Larry Brennan in 1998, as well as the attempted murder of Samuel Caskey in 1990.
The families of the victims welcomed the ombudsman’s findings. A statement by Relatives for Justice and KRW Law said families felt vindicated by Anderson’s conclusions. “The report finds that 11 murdered citizens and their families were systemically failed by the British state in life and in death.
“It is a damning report that is undiluted evidence of the policy of collusion as it was practiced in south Belfast, and across the north.”
Niall Murphy, a solicitor at KRW, said the report made a huge difference to families. “The report is empowering … Their worst fears, their worst nightmares have been validated by an organ of the state,” he told the BBC.
“The police ombudsman is an office which is set up in accordance with the Police Act of 1988. So this is a state-validated report, which confirms that the murder of their loved ones was afflicted by an overarching state policy of collusion,” he added.
