Loughinisland: Doug Beattie calls for probe into police ombudsman’s report

The Ulster Unionist justice spokesman said that a list of serious claims made by former senior police officers – reported in the News Letter last week – requires a thorough examination by the Department of Justice.

In a series of in-depth articles on the brutal murder of six Catholic men in 1994, the officers detailed how they believe one detective was used as “fodder” to spark a second PONI investigation, how the evidence of a mystery witness destroyed an officer’s life before being discredited, and how the forensic value of a car’s “rusting shell” was overstated, which all helped drive a ‘collusion’ narrative around the UVF atrocity.

“Given the damage which allegations of collusion and protection of suspects causes, and the eagerness with which some people seize on such claims to suit the anti-state republican rewriting of history, the police ombudsman needs to be extremely careful in language and actions,” the MLA said.

Mr Beattie said the bereaved families deserve justice, but added: “I fear that they have been done a disservice by some who are desperate to create an ‘us and them’ narrative and cynically undermine confidence in the police.”

The second police ombudsman probe was launched following complaints by lawyers for the bereaved families – supported by the current ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire – that the previous Al Hutchinson report of 2011 was too narrowly focused on events around the actual murders in 1994.

The murdered men were: Adrian Rogan, 34; Daniel McCreanor, 59; Eamon Byrne, 39; Patrick O’Hare, 35; Barney Green, 87 and Malcolm Jenkinson, 52.

New life was breathed into the drive for a fresh investigation when a mystery witness came forward with explosive new evidence of ‘collusion’ in late 2009.

She claimed to have got a clear look at the driver of the killers’ getaway car as it sped past her house at night on an unlit road, that a serving police officer hid the car on his own property, and that police failed to act on her evidence.

The revelations outraged the Loughinisland families and were viewed as further evidence that police informers were being protected.

It was another five years before a PONI reconstruction of the killers’ getaway would expose this evidence as entirely implausible.

The officer alleged to have been concealing the Triumph Acclaim at his property told the News Letter how he had been suspended from duty for two years, and was ostracised by colleagues who believed at the time that he would not have been arrested by PONI investigators without hard evidence.

“The reconstruction of what she claimed happened came too late for me – the damage had been done,” the ex-officer said.

Mr Beattie said: “Following the News Letter’s examination of this case it is now absolutely imperative that the Department of Justice begin an immediate investigation to ensure continued public confidence in the ombudsman’s office.

“We heard that a former CID officer believes he was used as fodder by the police ombudsman to quash former ombudsman Al Hutchinson’s report and initiate a fresh investigation into the Loughinisland massacre.

“The officer claims that he wrote a letter of complaint to the ombudsman’s in 2016.

“This raises questions as to how this complaint was dealt with.”

A spokesman for the office of the police ombudsman said: “The quashing of the first police ombudsman Loughinisland report and the publication of the second have already been the subject of extensive consideration by the court, as well as public comment.

“We stand by the findings of the final police ombudsman Loughinisland report.”

No one has ever been charged or convicted in relation to the murders.