The Grey Blur
22nd January 2007, 16:25
BBC Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6286695.stm)
NI police colluded with killers
Police colluded with loyalists behind over a dozen murders in north Belfast, a report by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland has confirmed.
Nuala O'Loan's report said UVF members in the area committed murders and other serious crimes while working as informers for Special Branch.
It said two retired Assistant Chief Constables refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Special Branch officers gave the killers immunity, it said.
The officers ensured the murderers were not caught and even "baby-sat" them during police interviews to help them avoid incriminating themselves.
The Special Branch officers "created false notes" and blocked searches for UVF weapons.
POLICE COLLUSION REPORT
They also paid almost £80,000 to leading loyalist Mark Haddock, jailed for 10 years last November for an attack on a nightclub doorman.
Responding to the report, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde offered an apology to the victims' families.
He said the report made "shocking, disturbing and uncomfortable reading".
NI Secretary Peter Hain said it "shone a torch into a very dark corner".
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said republicans would "not be surprised or shocked by the revelations".
"We think that it's an incentive that the mechanisms which were put in place for accountability, which we put in place and which we have argued for, now need to be deployed, not only to make sure that this does not happen (again), but if it does, that those guilty will be dealt with properly," he said.
The report, published on Monday, called for a number of murder investigations to be re-opened.
Some interesting stuff happening in NI around the reformation of the Police Service, including these revelations. Gerry Adams is very right though; anyone with an ounce of political nous in Ireland knew collusion was a real and serious threat to anyone who opposed the status quo. Still, some interesting developments...
NI police colluded with killers
Police colluded with loyalists behind over a dozen murders in north Belfast, a report by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland has confirmed.
Nuala O'Loan's report said UVF members in the area committed murders and other serious crimes while working as informers for Special Branch.
It said two retired Assistant Chief Constables refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Special Branch officers gave the killers immunity, it said.
The officers ensured the murderers were not caught and even "baby-sat" them during police interviews to help them avoid incriminating themselves.
The Special Branch officers "created false notes" and blocked searches for UVF weapons.
POLICE COLLUSION REPORT
They also paid almost £80,000 to leading loyalist Mark Haddock, jailed for 10 years last November for an attack on a nightclub doorman.
Responding to the report, Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde offered an apology to the victims' families.
He said the report made "shocking, disturbing and uncomfortable reading".
NI Secretary Peter Hain said it "shone a torch into a very dark corner".
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said republicans would "not be surprised or shocked by the revelations".
"We think that it's an incentive that the mechanisms which were put in place for accountability, which we put in place and which we have argued for, now need to be deployed, not only to make sure that this does not happen (again), but if it does, that those guilty will be dealt with properly," he said.
The report, published on Monday, called for a number of murder investigations to be re-opened.
Some interesting stuff happening in NI around the reformation of the Police Service, including these revelations. Gerry Adams is very right though; anyone with an ounce of political nous in Ireland knew collusion was a real and serious threat to anyone who opposed the status quo. Still, some interesting developments...