O’Loan slams RUC failure to investigate Nelson threats

The North's Police Ombudsman has concluded that the RUC failed to properly investigate threats made against Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson.

Nuala O'Loan has investigated the case on foot of a complaint from a Belfast-based human rights group.

Ms Nelson received at least 20 threats from loyalists in the three years before she was killed by a booby-trapped bomb planted beneath her car in March 1999.

They included seven separate death threats, two of which were allegedly made by RUC officers.

In today's report, Ms O'Loan says the threats were not handled properly, with the police failing to consider the particular nature of Mrs Nelson's public profile and the level of concern about her safety.