Inquiry needed 'before witnesses die'

A public inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane should be held now before more vital witnesses die, Judge Peter Cory said tonight.

With two loyalists implicated in allegations of collusion with the security forces already dead, the retired Canadian judge warned vital testimonies could be lost if the British government was to have a lengthy delay to any inquiry.

With a loyalist currently awaiting trial in September for Mr Finucane’s murder, he also challenged the British government’s insistence that all criminal proceedings must be completed before an inquiry is held.

Judge Cory said: “Fifteen years and two months have elapsed since the murder of Pat Finucane to the present time.

“Others have died or been killed. It therefore becomes more and more difficult as time continues to pass to properly hold a public inquiry.”

In one of the most controversial killings during the Troubles, Pat Finucane was hit 14 times when gunmen opened fire on him in his north Belfast home in February 1989 as he ate an evening meal with his family.

Mr Finucane had come to public attention by defending several republican terror suspects but his family have strenuously denied claims that he was a member of the IRA.

In reports handed to the British government last October, Judge Cory recommended public inquiries into his murder and the controversial killings of loyalist terror boss Billy Wright, human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson and Catholic father-of-two Robert Hamill.

But when his reports were released last Thursday, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy was only able to confirm immediate inquiries into the Wright, Nelson and Hamill killings.

Mr Murphy told MPs: “In the Finucane case, an individual is currently being prosecuted for the murder. The police investigation by Sir John Stevens and his team continues. It is not possible to say whether further prosecutions may follow.

“The conclusion of the criminal justice process in this case is thus some way in the future. For that reason, we will set out the way ahead at the conclusion of prosecutions.”

In December 2001, former Ulster Defence Association quartermaster turned police informer, William Stobie, was gunned down by loyalists in north Belfast.

Mr Stobie had claimed he had warned his Special Branch handler before the Finucane attack that he had been asked by a senior loyalist to supply guns to kill the lawyer but nothing was done.

Last April, Brian Nelson, a British army spy in the UDA, died of a brain haemorrhage.

It was alleged the Forces Research Unit supplied Mr Nelson with information to pass onto loyalist hitmen about potential targets.

Also in April, a report by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens, who has headed up an outside investigation of the Finucane murder, claimed the murder of the solicitor and Protestant student Adam Lambert could have been prevented were it not for collusion.

Loyalist Ken Barrett is due to stand trial in September for Mr Finucane’s murder.

He has denied all charges.

Last Thursday, on the day the Cory Report was published, the 40-year-old, who was arrested in Sussex last May, was transferred from Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim to an English jail.

The Northern Ireland Office said the transfer was processed on compassionate grounds, so he could be near his wife and it was purely coincidental that it took place last Thursday.

However, in an unsuccessful bail application last September, Mr Barrett’s lawyers expressed concern for their client’s safety if he remained behind bars in Maghaberry.