Serving PSNI officers face action in collusion probe

Two serving police officers could face criminal charges over security force collusion with loyalist killers, it was announced tonight.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde disclosed details on the pair were among files Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Both officers were in the Royal Ulster Constabulary when Ulster Defence Association gunmen murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in February 1989.

Following a mammoth investigation, Mr Stevens uncovered shocking levels of conspiracy between covert military intelligence, RUC Special Branch and loyalist paramilitaries.

Details on up to 20 soldiers and police officers believed to be involved in the plot have been passed to the DPP.

But as he briefed the Policing Board in Belfast, the Chief Constable told members not all police officers implicated had retired.

He said: “Two of those relate to serving police officers who had very junior rank at that time of the (Finucane) investigation.”

Mr Orde, who ran Mr Stevens's third probe into collusion allegations before he was appointed Chief Constable in Northern Ireland, was also challenged over the costs of the inquiry.

Democratic Unionist board member Ian Paisley junior claimed the Finucane investigation had not produced any evidence that had resulted in convictions despite costing millions of pounds.

He said: “Those resources could be far better spent if they were directed towards the murders of 26 soldiers, nine police officers and 80 civilians murdered in the same year.”

Mr Orde agreed the investigation had been extremely expensive but claimed he needed more information on the other 1989 murders to make a judgment.

“I don’t know enough about those crimes which were unsolved (to say) whether one would be successful had the same resources been deployed,” he said.

“If the objective is to bring the families satisfaction then I think that’s quite a large debate to be had.”