Family of murdered brothers stands by collusion claims

The family of the brothers murdered in Armagh 14 years ago have stood by their claim there had been collusion in the killings.

This morning, the Police Ombudsman said there was no evidence the security forces in the North colluded with loyalist killers in the murder of the two Catholic brothers.

They expressed disappointment the Ombudsman had found no such evidence and claimed there must have been a cover up.

The brothers’ father, Eamon Cairns. Said it was with “grave concern and much pain” the family received the report from the Ombudsman.

“Our search for the truth seems no closer,” he said.

“It seems hard to believe that a professional and highly experienced police force could be accused of this high degree of incompetence.”

On the unproven allegation of collusion, he said: “This report implicitly casts further suspicions that there was collusion, and a subsequent cover up between then and now to ensure any such evidence would never come to light.”

Mr Cairns said the family was conscious their case was one of many similar cases.

“It is our belief that the (British) government has colluded with loyalists to kill our sons and it is a source of eternal pain and frustration.”

The family solicitor , Eugene Burns, added: “The anguish of the Cairns family at the murder of their two children has been compounded by the failure of the RUC and PSNI to conduct an investigation to the required standards.”

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Upper Bann, John O’Dowd, said the report had highlighted the complete failure of the RUC to attempt to apprehend the killers and once again showed Special Branch as a force within a force.

Mr O’Dowd said: “While no paper trail may exist of collusion before the fact, the findings of the Ombudsman investigation that the police investigation stopped after three months and that the Special Branch failed to even cooperate with that investigation surely highlights collusion after the fact.”

Many nationalists and republicans believed a UVF unit acted with impunity in the North Armagh area in the early 1990s, he said.

“Today’s report shows that after the murder of these two young brothers – who were murdered simply because they were Catholics – the RUC displayed a lack of vigour and determination in catching their killers,” he said.

Mr O’Dowd questioned why Special Branch had not thought it a priority to catch a group of sectarian serial killers, adding “many believe the reason is quite simple, they were one and the same”.

SDLP MLA Delores Kelly said many in the local community continued to believe there may have been protection of high level informers in the aftermath of the killings.

“The fact the investigation was effectively wound down in the first weeks after the killing is a cause for great concern.”

And she said the report further underlined the need for the new beginning to policing and vindicated the work done by her party in driving the agenda forward.

The PSNI said it welcomed the finding there was no evidence of collusion.

A statement added: “We also note the comments made about the investigation into the murders. As stated by the Police Ombudsman these murders took place during a week in which 23 people were murdered.

“The formation of Crime Operations Department in 2004 has significantly improved our investigative capability and systems for dealing with families and keeping them updated on progress of investigations.”