Stevens reports confirms collusion

British security forces colluded with a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland to murder Catholics including prominent solicitor Pat Finucane, according to a report out today.

The report, containing 6,000 files and 4,000 exhibits, is a result of an investigation led by Metropolitan Commissioner Sir John Stevens.

And it is almost certain to intensify international pressure for a full judicial inquiry into the killing.

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said the report should not damage confidence in the new police service.

“All that is now behind us,” he told Channel 4 News at Noon.

“There is a very different set of conditions and climate of political reality and the building of the community of Northern Ireland and that is why everyone can have every confidence in the future.”

The issues realised were different from those of the Omagh bombing, where the culprits were known and everything possible should be done to bring them to justice, Mr Mandelson said.

“What the families are trying to argue – and let’s be clear a propaganda war has replaced the dirty war – is that there was a conspiracy by the state to murder Catholics,” he said.

That was not the case, according to Mr Mandelson, who was forced to quit his Cabinet post two years ago.

The Labour MP said: “There was considerable collusion going on among all sorts of people.”

However, that did not amount to a conspiracy by the British state, Mr Mandelson added.