Shankill bomb victim's legal case against human rights quango boss over RUC comments to proceed
A court has allowed a legal challenge based on a claim that the head of Northern Ireland’s human rights quango acted outside her legal powers when questioning the role of former RUC men in a Troubles legacy body.
Gary Murray, whose sister Leanne, 13, was murdered when the IRA bombed a fish shop on the Shankill Road in 1993, took legal action over comments by Alyson Kilpatrick last year.
On Monday, the High Court decided that Mr Murray had an arguable case that Ms Kilpatrick, the Chief Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) had acted unlawfully.
She had said that the position of a top investigator at the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) was “untenable” because of his policing past.
She later told MPs that comments she made in an Irish News interview had been later “misleadingly characterised” as criticism of former RUC officers.
Ms Kilpatrick had questioned whether the state could fulfil its obligation to carry out effective and independent investigations into Troubles crimes, particularly those involving alleged involvement of former police officers, when the ICRIR’s lead commissioner for investigations was himself a retired senior police officer, namely former high-ranking RUC and PSNI commander Peter Sheridan.
Reacting to Monday’s High Court decision, Mr Murray’s legal advisor Jamie Bryson said: “The High Court has ruled there is an arguable case that in her public commentary targeting the Chief Commissioner of the ICRIR Sir Declan Morgan and head of investigations Mr Peter Sheridan, the Chief Commissioner Ms Kilpatrick acted unlawfully.
“This alone is very significant. The NIHRC has become a de-facto campaigning organisation, more often than not totally in lockstep with nationalism particularly on legacy, social and identity issues.
“The importance of this case is rooted in the fact that it seeks to put the NIHRC back within its own statutory box, given they have become in the eyes of many partisan political activists.
“Mr Murray has a case before the ICRIR in respect of the Shankill bombing and it is outrageous that the credibility of the organisation was attacked in the way it was by Ms Kilpatrick, adopting a campaigning posture in the Irish News.
“It’s a shameful day for the NIHRC that a victim of the IRA’s Shankill bomb has had to drag them into court. It’s more shameful still that such is the chutzpah and arrogance of this Commission, they have thus far tried to brazen it out.
“The Chief Commissioner should resign, and upon doing so she can take up any and every nationalist cause she likes. But one thing for sure, her campaigning days as a NIHRC Chief Commissioner are over.”
An NIHRC spokesperson said: “The Chief Commissioner continues to act in accordance with the Commission’s statutory remit and does not engage in political activity or campaigning.
“It would not be appropriate for the Commission to comment on the detail of the case while proceedings are continuing. We await the outcome of the Court process”.