Investigation into 1977 NI murder unearths new lead

A fresh lead has been uncovered by a team re-investigating the murder of a policeman in the North more than 30 years ago, it was announced today.

The new evidence on the unsolved killing of 49-year-old RUC Det Sgt Joe Campbell outside a police station in Cushendall, Co Antrim on this day in 1977 was identified by investigators from the Police Ombudsman Office.

Ombudsman Al Hutchinson is re-examining the case after complaints alleging police involvement in the shooting of the Roman Catholic married father of eight.

His team is also probing claims that the RUC failed to investigate the crime properly.

An RUC detective sergeant was arrested in the early 1980s and charged with the murder but was later acquitted at Belfast Crown court.

The Ombudsman office, which used the anniversary of the shooting to make a renewed appeal for information, would not disclose the nature of the potential evidential breakthrough.

“It is in the interests of both the Campbell family and policing in Northern Ireland that we do all we can to discover the truth about whether or not there were any police issues related to the murder,” said a spokesman.

Det Sgt Campbell was shot at around 10.30pm with a high velocity rifle as he locked the village police station for the evening.

He received one wound to the head and died almost immediately.

The ombudsman’s office are trying to determine why Det Sgt Campbell locked up the station even though he was off-duty and want to know if he was planning to meet someone there.

The spokesman said on the night in question there was a bingo session and a theatre event being held in the village.

“Sergeant Campbell walked the short distance from his house to the police station,” he said.

“The person who shot him must have had to lie in wait. Did anyone see someone acting suspiciously in the village at around 10pm?

“We also know that Joe Campbell’s behaviour changed in the days leading up to the shooting. We want to know if he confided in anyone about what may have been on his mind, and in particular if he thought his life was at risk.”

The spokesman said he accepted that some memories will undoubtedly have faded in the 32 years since Det Sgt Campbell’s murder, but added: “Cushendall is, and was, a small and close-knit community. The murder was a rare instance in which the violence of the time intruded on the village. It is my hope that this appeal will prompt a memory, any memory, of anything unusual in the area on the evening of February 25 1977.”

Earlier this week, Police Ombudsman appeals were made at local church services.

“We have issued this appeal in the hope that anyone who may have any knowledge whatsoever of the circumstances of Sergeant Campbell’s murder, no matter how insignificant that information might seem, will come forward and speak to our investigators,” said the spokesman.

Police Ombudsman investigators will be at The Old School House in Mill Street, Cushendall between 9am – 9pm over the next three days.

They can also be contacted on the free-phone witness appeal line, 0800 032 7880.