Collusion is not an illusion

Da Ireland.com

Report details RUC-loyalist collusion

Special Branch officers colluded with UVF gang members responsible for many murders in Belfast during the 1990s, according to a report compiled by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.

The report, Operation Ballast, was initiated following representations by Mr Raymond McCord, father of Raymond McCord jnr, who was murdered in 1997 allegedly on the orders of UVF Mount Vernon leader Mark Haddock, who is currently serving 10 years for the grievous bodily harm of Trevor Gowdy, a doorman at a social club in Monkstown, near Belfast in 2002.

The investigation was widened to examine circumstances surrounding ten murders and ten attempted murders during the 1990s.

Senior RUC officers are understood to have been implicated in the scandal, and the British government is bracing itself for an uproar over how a state agency allowed a terrorist unit to kill Catholics and Protestants.

According to the report, a number of senior officers, including two retired Assistant Chief Constables, seven Detective Chief Superintendents and two Detective Superintendents refused to provide an explanation of Special Branch and CID internal practices during the period in question.

The report found that others, including some serving officers, gave "evasive, contradictory, and on occasion farcical answers to questions."

"On other occasions the investigation demonstrated conclusively that what an officer had told the Police Ombudsman's investigators was completely untrue," the report said.

However, although files have been sent to the DPP following the investigation, codenamed Operation Ballast, it is understood a recommendation has been made that no charges should be brought against any officers.

The report is understood includes a series of recommendations on the handling of agents in an attempt to strengthen public confidence in the police.

Mrs O'Loan has delivered a dossier, naming Special Branch and CID officers as well as the UVF agents they ran, to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain and PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde.

The Ombudsman's case stretches back to the murder of Catholic taxi driver Sharon McKenna (27) in January 1993.

Mrs O'Loan's staff have also investigated other killings, including the shooting in 2000 of loyalist Tommy English during a paramilitary feud, and Presbyterian Church Minister David Templeton, who died after being beaten at his home in 1997.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain acknowledged this morning that the report would make "extremely uncomfortable reading" but insisted that policing in Northern Ireland had now changed.

"These things - murder, collusion, cover-up, obstruction of investigations - could not happen today, not least because of the accountability mechanisms that have been put in place over recent years," he told the BBC Radio 4 Todayprogramme.

He warned that the report could lead to charges being brought against those involved. "That is a matter for the Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland, it is a matter for the Chief Constable and it is a matter for his historic inquiries team," he said.

"There are all sorts of opportunities for prosecutions to follow," he added.

The fact that some retired police officers obstructed the investigation and refused to co-operate with the Police Ombudsman is very serious in itself.

"There will be consequences for those involved and it is a matter for the relevant bodies to take up."

Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness claimed the report would make a powerful contribution to the policing debate.

"It raises the question about how many more areas were affected, and how many more people were murdered by elements effectively within the RUC and British intelligence," he said.

"This is the lid coming off the can of worms, and Raymond McCord has done our community a great service."

Mr McGuinness added that it would have major implications for Sir Hugh and the British government, and he expressed concern that those involved may escape prosecution.