UN to get report on alleged RUC murder cover-up

A human-rights body is planning to send a dossier to the United Nations and the US Congress on allegations that the RUC protected the loyalist murderers of a Belfast man.

London-based group British-Irish Rights Watch is planning the move as part of a campaign for a public inquiry into the matter.

Twenty-two-year-old Raymond McCord was beaten to death in 1997 and dumped in a north Belfast quarry.

Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force were blamed for the killing.

The North's Police Ombudsman is investigating allegations that RUC Special Branch blocked a proper murder inquiry to protect two high-level informers within the UVF.

Her report is expected to be published later this year.