Police call for ‘collusion’ public inquiries to be suspended

PUBLIC inquiries into three Northern Ireland killings involving alleged official collusion should be suspended while experts review ways of dealing with the past, senior police said yesterday.

The Superintendents’ Association said hearings into the controversial loyalist and republican assassinations should be put in deep freeze.

Robin Eames, who retired as Archbishop of Armagh six months ago, and Denis Bradley, the former priest and community mediator who was the first vice-chairman of the Policing Board, will decide if a Truth Commission similar to that set up in South Africa should be established or whether some other route to dealing with the hurt should be used.

Welcoming the announcement, Chief Superintendent Stephen Grange said: “We do however harbour a significant concern that the work of the consultative group, which isn’t due to formally report until the summer of 2008, may be made more difficult by the ongoing public inquiries.

“We feel therefore that in pausing for reflection and identifying the best way forward, there exists some scope for these inquiries to be suspended.

“Such a decision would create the space for the newly created consultative group to proceed with its task unencumbered.”

Three public inquiries have opened.

Established in 2004 by then-Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy, they are investigating the loyalist car bomb murder of Rosemary Nelson, 40, at her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in 1999 and the death of Robert Hamill, 25, at the hands of a loyalist mob in nearby Portadown in 1997 while police allegedly looked on.

Ms Nelson, a Catholic lawyer whose hearing has cost £15.1 million, was targeted despite the police being aware of the threat to her life.

Mr Hamill, whose inquiry has cost £10.4m, was killed when tensions were still high surrounding the Drumcree loyal order protest in the Ulster town.

A public hearing into the murder of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright, 37, at the Maze Prison in December 1997 by republican Irish National Liberation Army gunmen opened formally last month.

It had spent £7.2m until April but that does not include the cost of the latest court dates.

Robin Eames’ panel has been appointed to co-chair a small independent consultative group by Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, who said he had brought in the two men after consultation with First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

However, Ian Paisley’s DUP and Sinn Féin have raised concerns about the panel’s independence and called for all innocent victims to be included in their deliberations.