Colleen McMurray murder: ‘The state was in collusion with the IRA’ says family

Her police car was blown up as it travelled along Merchants Quay in Newry in March 1992.

Yesterday’s police ombudsman’s report into the killing came 17 years after Mrs McMurray’s widower Philip lodged a complaint regarding the original RUC investigation into the murder.

In a statement, the McMurray family said they have lost all faith and trust in the available mechanisms to investigate collusion in Northern Ireland.

The familiy said the length of time the report took to complete “compounded the frustrations and suspicions” of the family.

“The findings, whilst welcomed in part, do not go far enough,” said their statement.

“It is clear that RUC Special Branch held intelligence on key suspects involved in the murder of Constable McMurray.

“Why was the intelligence not shared or subjected to dissemination to RUC CID investigators?

“The families are of the view there was collusion between the PIRA and British security forces which is politically difficult for both the Provisional IRA and the British state to allow to be investigated.

“The family of Constable McMurray strongly contend that her murder could have been prevented.

“Previous chief constables have failed to investigate the murder of Constable McMurray.

“The current chief constable cannot be trusted with the investigation into the murder of Constable McMurray as he will not be allowed to investigate her murder in an independent manner.

“Philip McMurray and the McFarland family therefore call on the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis to establish a judge-led statutory inquiry into the murder of Constable McMurray as soon as possible.”

Someone known in the report only as Person A had claimed that he had passed on information to the RUC about the new type of detonators the IRA was using, and that these details could have halted the attack.

However, the report also states that the man – an IRA member attached to the South Down unit, and a self-confessed informer – was taken off Special Branch’s list of informants in 1994 because his handlers had come to regard him as a liar who would make up stories for pay.

The ombudsman’s report this week discounted Person A’s claims that he gave the RUC intelligence which could have stopped the attack – and said that, in fact, he should have been regarded as a suspect in the murder.