Finuncane family demand collusion report be published

The British government was being taken to the Northern Ireland High Court today in a bid to force it to publish a report into the murder of Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane 15 years ago.

Mr Finucane’s widow Geraldine has been granted a judicial review in which she will seek to force Ulster Secretary Paul Murphy to publish the report by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory on the killing.

Judge Cory examined allegations of collusion surrounding a number of the most controversial killings during the Northern Ireland troubles.

Last October he presented four reports to the British government and two to the Irish Government. While Dublin published those they received, London has stalled.

It insists it will publish them eventually and has cited legal considerations for the delay. The British government said it would fight the action to force it to act before it is ready.

Judge Cory was appointed by the governments in 2001 to focus on six killings, and in the absence of publication by the British government, he created a stir when he contacted the families in January and told them he had sufficient suspicion of collusion to recommend public inquiries.

That was enough to prompt the Finucane family to go to court to try to force publication and the handing over to them of a copy of the report.

The murders under the spotlight are:

:: The Ulster Freedom Fighters murder of Mr Finucane in front of his family in their north Belfast home in February 1989.

:: The loyalist killing of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson who was blown up by a car bomb as she drove away from her home in March 1999.

:: The murder of Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill who was kicked to death by a loyalist mob in May 1997. It has been alleged police stood back and watched the killing.

:: The shooting of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright, who was gunned down inside the Maze prison by the INLA in December 1997.

The retired Supreme Court judge also presented the Irish Government with reports on the killing of two RUC officers and a Northern Ireland High Court judge and his wife, which have been surrounded by allegations of collusion with the IRA by gardaí.

Dublin has decided to hold a public inquiry into the deaths of Superintendent Bob Buchanan and Chief Inspector Harry Breen, who were gunned down in an IRA ambush just after crossing back into the north, following a meeting with their Irish counterparts in Dundalk in March 1989.

An inquiry is not, however, being held into the deaths of Lord Justice Gibson and his wife Lady Cecily, who died when a 500lb landmine blew their car apart as they drove across the border while returning through Ireland from a holiday.