Police chief confident of conviction in Finucane case

The probe into the loyalist paramilitary murder of Catholic lawyer Pat Finucane will result in convictions, the man in charge of the investigation predicted today.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said his long awaited report into the brutal killing in November 1989 would do more than simply provide recommendations for the future.

“It is about active inquiries to arrest people responsible for criminal behaviour and I have little doubt that there will be further prosecutions and convictions,” he told a meeting of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York.

Mr Finucane was gunned down in front of his wife and family by UDA gunmen who burst into their north Belfast home. Nobody has been convicted of the murder.

Mr Stevens's report was due out in November but has been delayed until the spring.

The commissioner said the hold-up was because crucial evidence was kept back from the investigation until the late stages.

“There have been delays – and I make no apologies for this – because further leads have to be followed up and people interviewed.

“We’ve spent an awful lot of time and resources investigating it, and now we are still coming across new leads and new evidence that presumably have been there since day one.”

He said investigators now had the material they needed.

“We certainly know what’s gone on, but the difference between knowing what’s gone on and getting the evidence to take people to court is slightly different.”

Mr Stevens also appealed to Mr Finucane’s widow, Geraldine, to co-operate with the investigation into her husband’s murder.

Mrs Finucane wants a full independent inquiry into the killing.