Judge issues warning over murder probe interference

The British government was warned today it should not interfere with a new report into controversial murders involving alleged security force collusion in Northern Ireland and the Ireland.

Canadian judge Peter Cory, who revealed his exhaustive examination of six killings has uncovered new lines of inquiry, also pledged to hold the British government to its commitment to carry out public inquiries in any cases he recommended.

He refused to discuss his recommendations, but asked in London today if any attempt was made to alter the 500-page dossier he stressed it would be resisted.

Mr Justice Cory declared: “I have one younger grandson who expresses it very well. He says ’I’m going down to my room and I’m going to kick and scream and turn blue’.

“I don’t think I would kick and scream and I don’t think I would turn blue but I would make a lot of noise.”

The retired Canadian Supreme Court Judge has spent the last 14 months investigating each of the cases after being appointed by the authorities in London and Dublin.

The murders include the loyalist assassinations of lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, the killings of a high court judge and two senior RUC officers by the IRA, and the shooting of jailed terror boss Billy Wright.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is committed to setting up public tribunals similar to the hearing on the Bloody Sunday shootings if Justice Cory believes any are needed.

But even though he handed his report to Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy in London before travelling on to meet the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin, it could be two months before his findings are published.

However, the judge insisted that the six cases agreed by the two governments and political parties during talks on the Northern Ireland peace process at Weston Park in Staffordshire in 2001 were based on calling public inquiries if needed.

“To do anything else might be something that was demeaning of the Weston Park agreement,” Mr Justice Cory said.

“There are other ways and other situations that can take the place of a public inquiry.

“As I understand the agreement and what was done there’s no alternative to a public inquiry and what would be understood as a public inquiry in 2001 in these six cases selected at that time in which a public inquiry was recommended.”

Amid the delay over publishing the judge’s findings, anguished relatives have hit out at the British government.

Fears have also been expressed that Mr Justice Cory’s independence could be compromised as legal chiefs trawl through the document in order to blank out any names or information relevant to ongoing criminal investigations.

But the judge predicted: “To some extent the report is going to demonstrate that independence.”

Mr Justice Cory has worked closely with detectives including Scotland Yard chief Sir John Stevens’ team investigating collusion claims surrounding the 1989 murder of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane.

The judge also disclosed that his work had uncovered details not previously known to the detectives.

He said: “I have seen things that because of the routes followed are additional to some of the police investigations.

“I have had tremendous co-operation from Sir John Stevens and his team and I like to think I co-operated with him in the same way."