NEWS > 23 January 2007

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Guardian Unlimited - UK
23 January 2007

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15 murders linked to police co

Special Branch officers protected loyalist paramilitary informants and failed to stop them committing up to 15 murders, according to a damning report by the police ombudsman for Northern Ireland published yesterday.
There was clear evidence of collusion between members of the banned Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in north Belfast and police officers over a period of 12 years, the ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, declared.

Last night there were calls for the resignation of the former chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who is now head of the Inspectorate of Constabulary, with an overview of standards throughout policing.

The protection of terrorist killers and the scale of the collusion were the result of the "organisational dysfunction" of Special Branch, responsibility for which rested primarily with the chief officers of the RUC, Ms O'Loan said.
Her long-awaited report, running to 160 pages, concentrated solely on one relatively small patch of Belfast in the later stages of the Troubles. But her investigators exposed cover-ups, destruction of evidence, falsification of notes and the blocking of searches for paramilitary arms dumps. A culture of "subservience to Special Branch" permeated the police force, her report found.

Central figure
The investigation was sparked by the killing of Raymond McCord Jr in 1997 by the UVF. No police officers or informants are named in the report but at the centre of the inquiry is Mark Haddock, a former leader of the UVF on the Mount Vernon estate in north Belfast. He has been named in the Irish parliament as the central figure in the ombudsman's report. He is currently in jail serving 10 years for assault on a nightclub doorman. Last May his former loyalist accomplices tried to kill him. He survived despite being hit by six bullets.

Haddock was paid at least �80,000 by police handlers between 1991 and 2003 for information he supposedly handed over.

The inquiry said that "reliable" intelligence showed that Haddock and other UVF informants were linked to 10 murders, a bomb attack against a Sinn F�in office in Monaghan, drug dealing, 10 punishment shootings, and 10 attempted murders, as well as extortion and intimidation.

Less reliable evidence, the ombudsman's investigators concluded, suggested the same UVF informants were probably connected to a further five murders. In some cases informants were "babysat" through interrogations by their own Special Branch handlers "to help them avoid incriminating themselves".

Ms O'Loan said the war against terrorism was no excuse. "I can understand how difficult it was. What I cannot understand now, given the level of knowledge and the intelligence that was building in the system, is that they just continued to employ these informants."

In many cases there was evidence of inadequate police work. Haddock at one stage told his handlers of a "high profile attack" due to take place on a republican target. "The police made safe the explosives and returned them to him but did not mount an operation to see what the terrorists had planned or to arrest them," Ms O'Loan said.

Her findings prompted calls for a public inquiry and disciplinary action against senior officers. The Director of Public Prosecutions has ruled that there will be no criminal charges on the evidence available so far. The murder cases will, however, be reinvestigated and could result in fresh prosecutions.

Inquiry ruled out
The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, ruled out a public inquiry, saying that �200m has already been spent on existing investigations, including the Bloody Sunday inquiry.

He admitted that the problem of collusion was far more widespread.

He added: "What happened was that a culture developed in the context of a murderous war became acceptable."

The report was published shortly before Sinn Fein stages a party conference aimed at delivering support for the police service for the first time in republican history.

Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein's president, who claimed the report only scratched the surface of collusion, said: "We need to ensure that no police officer is ever again able to abuse their position."

Raymond McCord, whose son was murdered by the UVF, said: "If the CID had been allowed to do their jobs my son would be alive today.

"We use to think allegations of [police collusion] were republican propaganda but it was the truth."

The Progressive Unionist party, the UVF's political wing, called the report's findings appalling and shameful. "This failure quite literally allowed informants to get away with murder."

The Ulster Unionist Policing spokesman Fred Cobain said: "The allegations paint a picture that falls far short of the integrity and professional ethics that citizens expect of police officers. If such behaviour can be proven then naturally prosecutions should follow."

Several of the officers criticised in the report are still serving in what is now the Police Service of Northern Ireland. During the inquiry more than 100 serving and former officers were questioned. Three officers were arrested.

The leader of the nationalist SDLP, MP Mark Durkan, called on Sir Ronnie to resign.

"He met with the police ombudsman's investigation but was unable to assist her investigation," he said. "So either he was not in control of a dysfunctional organisation or he knew full well, but kept the truth hidden. In either event, he should not be heading up the Inspectorate of Constabulary. He should resign."

The North Belfast Democratic Unionist MP, Nigel Dodds, in whose constituency most of the killings occurred, said: "It would be wrong to cast aside the sacrifices made by hundreds of RUC officers and other members of the security forces over the years as they battled against terrorism in all its manifestations."

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Article sourced from

Guardian Unlimited - UK23 January 2007

15 murders linked to police co

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Guardian Unlimited - UK
23 January 2007