Fresh probe ordered into Finucane murder

A fresh judicial investigation into the murder of Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane will be held in the New Year, the British government said tonight.

The announcement came following the collapse of the trial of the man charged with the killing 12 years ago, when the Crown agreed not to call the key prosecution witness because of his mental illness.

The Northern Ireland Office said a judge of international standing would be appointed to conduct an investigation into the murder, and others in which there have been allegations of security force collusion, no later than April next year.

The judge will have the power to recommend to the British government that a public inquiry into the killing should be held.

The NIO made the announcement as it came under renewed pressure to set up a public judicial inquiry into the murder of Mr Finucane following the collapse of the trial.

On his 51st birthday, William Stobie walked from Belfast Crown Court a free man when the Crown offered no evidence against him after deciding not to call their key witness.

The British Director of Public Prosecution agreed not to call former Sunday newspaper journalist Neil Mulholland after hearing he was suffering from manic depressive illness and could become suicidal if forced to give evidence.

The case against Stobie, a self-confessed police agent and one-time quartermaster in the Ulster Defence Association, was brought by a team headed by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens.

He had been called into Northern Ireland in the 1990s to reinvestigate the murder - and others - amid continual claims there had been security force collusion with loyalist groups.

Both the Finucane family and Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said they were not surprised the case had collapsed and renewed demands for an independent public inquiry.

The Finucanes said in a statement that the trial of Stobie was ‘‘never a truth-seeking exercise’’.

They had maintained all along the Stevens investigation and the prosecution of Stobie were a ‘‘delaying tactic to thwart the establishment of a public inquiry. The Stevens investigation has delayed a public inquiry by at least three years, so it has served its purpose,’’ they said.

The Finucanes claimed the appointment of a judge to carry out another investigation was ‘‘another delaying tactic’’ which would hold up a public inquiry for another four or five years.

They insisted: ‘‘Justice demands that Tony Blair should announce the establishment of a public inquiry now.

’’No amount of political deal making will dilute the family’s entitlement to this very basic human right, the right to truth.’’

The appointment of a judge to investigate allegations of security force collusion in loyalist murders was part of a deal made by Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern during the Weston Park talks with Northern Ireland political parties in the summer.

But the NIO cautioned tonight that as the Stevens Inquiry was still active the judge would not begin his probe if Stevens’ investigations resulted in criminal proceedings which it could prejudice.

Claiming the collapse of the Stobie case was inevitable, West Belfast MP Gerry Adams said: ‘‘From the beginning the British system and in particular the intelligence services responsible for collusion and the running of agents within the loyalist death squads have used every means available to them to prevent the truth from emerging around Pat Finucane’s case and hundreds of other similar killings.’’

He claimed it was also clear the DPP was ‘‘reluctant to pursue a case which would have exposed the complicity of that office’’ in preventing the full facts from becoming public.

‘‘Sinn Fein supports the family in their demand for a full public judicial inquiry. This is the only real mechanism now available for uncovering the truth,’’ he added.

A formal verdict of not guilty was returned by Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice Robert Carswell against Stobie on the charge of murdering Mr Finucane through aiding and abetting, counselling and procuring.

He was also found not guilty of murdering Protestant university student Adam Lambert, who was shot dead while working on a north Belfast building site in 1987 after loyalist gunmen mistook him for a Catholic.

The decision to withdraw the case was taken after the British Director of Public Prosecutions considered evidence given last week by a psychiatrist about the mental state of Mr Mulholland, currently on long term sick leave from his present job as an information officer in the Northern Ireland Office.

Speaking after the decision to abandon the case Stobie said: ‘‘I am glad it’s all over.’’

His solicitor Joe Rice said: ‘‘Mr Stobie is delighted. He always maintained his innocence.’’

He was considering the possibility of taking legal action for the disruption to his life and the four months he spent on remand in prison, he said.

Stobie was never accused of pulling the trigger of the gun which killed Mr Finucane, but was charged with murder through aiding and abetting, counselling and procuring.

He admitted supplying the gun used but insisted he had told his British Special Branch handlers in advance of the killing he did not know who the target was.

Crown counsel Gordon Kerr, announcing the decision not to proceed with the case, said the Director of Public Prosecutions had concluded Mr Mulholland was not able to provide evidence which could be relied on.

Mr Kerr told the court: ‘‘The Director has concluded that Mr Mulholland is not capable now of giving evidence upon which a court could rely nor is there a reasonable prospect of his being so capable at a future time in the context of this trial.’’

He added: ‘‘The Director recognises that if he had reached a different conclusion as to Mr Mulholland’s capacity to give evidence he would then have been required to weigh in the public interest, in the context of the nature and seriousness of the charges before the court, the usefulness of Mr Mulholland’s evidence against the real risk that he would be liable to suffer a relapse into serious manic depressive illness with possible irreversible consequences.’’

Mr Finucane was shot dead in front of his family in his North Belfast home in 1989.

The following year Stobie was interviewed about the killing but the British DPP decided there was not enough evidence to proceed against him.

The case was reopened in 1999 when John Stevens was called in to carry out a fresh investigation.

The British DPP this time decided to proceed with a prosecution after the Stevens team got a statement from Mr Mulholland, who had interviewed Stobie in 1990 when he worked for the Belfast newspaper Sunday Life.

Commenting on the decision to abandon the case, Hugh Orde, the Met’s deputy assistant commissioner who had been in day-to-day control of the Stevens Inquiry, insisted his officers had carried out a thorough investigation into the Finucane case.

He accepted it was for the British DPP to make the decision whether to prosecute or not.

Speaking outside the court he said: ‘‘We are satisfied we did everything we could to investigate these two terrible murders in the late 1980s.

‘‘As investigators we provided evidence to the prosecuting authorities and we are satisfied that it was entirely appropriate that these matters should be brought before the court.’’

He said the time lapse between the murders and their investigation meant it had been a ‘‘complex and challenging investigative environment’’ in which to conduct inquiries.