Maskey calls for public inquiry on Finucane murder

Sinn Fein’s Alec Maskey has called for a full public inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane after a leaked police report into the killing highlighted collusion between the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries.

The report by the Stevens inquiry recommends that individual police officers should face criminal charges for their role in the collusion, but Mr Maskey said this will allow those who were responsible at a political level to avoid prosecution.

"This issue of collusion runs right into the heart of Downing Street and therefore there should be no scapegoating," he said.

"As far as I’m concerned, any suggestion that collusion has simply been as a result of bad practice or incompetence is fundamentally flawed. I believe that collusion was a policy."