Eugene Reavey receives £400,000 in damages from PSNI and MoD as collusion case over 1976 loyalist murders of his three brothers s settled

Eugene Reavey, 79, sued the PSNI and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over claims that serving UDR soldiers and a RUC officer joined with loyalists to plot the killings.

John Martin, Brian and Anthony Reavey were shot dead at their family home in Whitecross back in January 1976.

In court today it was announced that the PSNI has agreed to pay their brother £175,000, while the MoD will pay him £225,000, to settle both actions.

An apology was also read out on behalf of Chief Constable Jon Boutcher for inadequacies in the investigation of the murders.

It stated: “The chief constable acknowledges and accepts that the behaviour and failures of members of the RUC may have contributed to the murders of John Martin Reavey, Brian Reavey and Anthony Reavey and to the loss suffered by the Plaintiff and his family.”

Loyalist paramilitary gunmen entered the cottage and shot the three victims while they were watching TV.

John Martin, 25, and Brian, 22, were both killed instantly, while 17-year-old Anthony died in hospital later that month.

The shootings were carried out using a machine gun taken from a British army base at Glenanne, Co Armagh by a rogue UDR corporal in an ‘inside job’ which had deadly consequences, it was claimed.

Mr Reavey sought damages for negligence, misfeasance in public office and the trauma from his alleged treatment in the aftermath of the attack.

Earlier in the trial he told the court that a British soldier danced on his brothers’ blood-stained clothing while other military personnel subjected their mother to humiliating abuse as they returned from the mortuary.

Mr Reavey described their alleged actions towards grieving members of the family as “depraved”.

The murders took place in the same month as 10 Protestant workmen were stopped in a van and shot dead at Kingsmills, Co Armagh.

Mr Reavey claimed he was repeatedly forced into a river and quizzed at gunpoint about who carried out that massacre when he returned to work following Anthony’s burial.

British soldiers stopped him at least three times that week, “frogmarched” him into water up to his chin and pulled the trigger against his head, the court heard.

Even though he knew nothing about Kingsmills, the alleged treatment and questions continued until he was left numb in the river and mentally traumatised.

Part of the case also involved claims that RUC officers also began to harass him following the murders, stopping his car and detaining him for hours at a time.

Mr Reavey said he suffered bouts of disturbed sleep and nightmares about the gun attack in the family’s cottage.

At one point he had suicidal thoughts of going back to the river and taking his own life.

During the trial his barrister, Des Fahy KC, named UDR soldiers Robert McConnell and James McNally, along with RUC Constable Laurence McClure as being allegedly involved in the murder plot.

McConnell stole one of the weapons used in the killings, a Sterling submachine gun, while on duty at Glenanne military base in May 1974, according to Mr Reavey’s case.

McClure allegedly operated as a “quartermaster” with control over the bringing of the guns to the murder scene and removing them afterwards.

The two defendants were initially represented by the same legal team in the action.

But the chief constable instructed new lawyers after it emerged he did not know that the cause of death of Anthony Reavey was being questioned.

On day five of the case it was disclosed that negotiations had led to settlements being reached with both the PSNI and the MoD.

Announcing the agreed terms, Mr Fahy said: The chief constable acknowledges the generational grief and trauma that have been suffered by the plaintiff and his family as a result of these murders.

“The chief constable apologies to the plaintiff for the inadequacies in the investigation of these murders and acknowledges that these failures have caused additional distress to the plaintiff and his family.”

Police also accept without reservation that Mr Reavey and his three murdered brothers had no involvement whatsoever in any paramilitary or terrorist activity, the court was told.

With the behaviour of some RUC members accepted to have potentially contributed to the killings, Mr Fahy added: “The chief constable apologises unreservedly for any such behaviour and failures and for the enduring consequences that have flowed from them.”

Although the MoD has agreed to pay £225,000 in damages, no admission of liability was made on its behalf.