Murphy moves to expand murders probe

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy is today set to announce his intention to increase the role of a special police unit set up to investigate unsolved murders in the North.

Mr Murphy, in his speech to the British Labour Party conference, will say that the serious crime review team set up by Chief Constable Hugh Orde should be put on a more comprehensive footing to look at more unsolved cases.

The British government has been under pressure from the Northern Ireland Police Federation to provide extra money for the unit set up to review a number of murders.

The Federation wants the unit to have the resources to examine all 1,800 unsolved cases, including the killings of more than 200 police officers.

Mr Murphy is not expected to outline the amount of money the British government intends to put into the review team. A further announcement on details is expected later.

A British government source indicated that the expansion in the role of the police team was not a substitute for the wider debate around truth, reconciliation and justice.

“This is just one element of an evolving package that will deal with the past in Northern Ireland,” the source said.

Earlier this month, Police Federation chairman Irwin Montgomery urged the British government to provide an extra £9m (€13.2m) to enable all the cases to be re-examined.

Currently, a team of 30 detectives has examined 40 files from the huge number of cases of unsolved civilian killings over 30 years of bloodshed in the North.

Mr Montgomery, who believes that all 1,800 cases could be reviewed over the next four years, said this would help bereaved families achieve closure.

“What we are looking at here would be the provision of some £9m (€13.2m) to finance a group of 30 people who would be in a position to look at these murders.

“This unit is already up and running. It is just that we need to expand to take all of this on board and it would create work for them for the next four years or so,” he said.

Mr Murphy will also call on Northern Ireland’s politicians to build on the political progress made after talks at Leeds Castle, Kent this month.

He is expected to outline the urgency of delivering devolved government in the North, stressing that direct rule from London was not an option.

Tony Blair is also expected to repeat this call in his address to delegates.

Last night Ulster Unionist Leader David Trimble, at a fringe meeting in Brighton, called on the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists to talk to Sinn Féin.

Mr Paisley is still refusing to talk to republicans but it has been confirmed he will travel to Dublin on Thursday to meet Bertie Ahern.

The two men have held political talks in London and at Leeds Castle but this will be the first time the DUP leader will have led a political delegation to Dublin.

With the political process in Northern Ireland deadlocked over the issue of power-sharing, DUP sources said the discussions would focus on the future work of a devolved executive with the Irish Government through cross-border and British-Irish Council structures.