Victims voice verdict on outgoing Troubles commissioner Judith Thompson

It is understood that she will leave office once her term comes to an end in late August.

Her tenure began in 2015 and had already been extended by a year in 2019 during the period Stormont was in limbo.

The BBC reported yesterday that Ms Thompson had been willing to stay on longer, but the First and Deputy First Ministers decided otherwise.

The commissioner’s office told the News Letter it would not offer any comment until the Executive Office made a formal announcement on the matter, which it has yet to do.

Michael Gallagher lost his son Aidan in the RIRA’s 1998 Omagh bombing which took 31 lives (including unborn twins).

He told the News Letter: “In short, I’m glad she’s going, for whatever good she’s done.

“We just feel that the victims’ sector is very Belfast-based. There’s a victims’ forum, but they very seldom come to take of our views on any of the issues.”

Asked where he felt she stood on the issue of terrorism (given that her predecessor Kathryn Stone balked at even using the word), Mr Gallagher noted that Ms Thompson had come from the Probation Board before becoming commissioner.

He said: “I’ve met many people from her background. I’m not saying they were bad people. But they are people who tend to sit on the fence. And sometimes I feel they’re impaled on the fence... I tend to find that type of person would often be a bit too balanced for my liking.

“They’re too mild-mannered. They seldom ever understand the position of the victim because they’re dealing with people who’ve been involved in crime.” 18.10

Julie Hambleton is a spokeswoman for people bereaved or hurt by the IRA’s notorious Birmingham bombings of 1974 (when two bombs were detonated inside a pair of packed pubs in the UK’s second city, killing 21 people, including her sister Maxine).

She said Mrs Thompson was “a very nice lady” but that they had only met once – and only after Mrs Hambleton had contacted her, a couple of years into her term.

“We told her in no uncertain terms, we were unimpressed with her and her organisation. If they are meant to represent victims of terrorism, then why is it that we had to contact them, as opposed to them finding us.

“I mean, it’s not as if we’re obscure or no-one has every heard of the Birmingham pub bombings.”

She is angered by the conflating of paramilitary perpetrators with victims, saying: “Where else in the world would that even be considered? Can you imagine the Americans discussing this with the Boston bomber?”

But she also said that she “has to toe the line and was “getting it from all angles”.

Alex Bunting MBE, a taxi driver whose car was blown up by the IRA with him inside, noted that during her tenure Robert McClenaghan – a former IRA serial bomber – had joined the Victims’ Forum, and that situation could have been handled better.

He also said that during the period of Stormont’s limbo, “she could have fought more for the victims across in Westminster”.

When it comes to her tenure overall: “If you were giving me a scale of one to 10, I’d say five.”

But he also said: “At the end of the day, it’s hard. They’re taking a job on where you have to abide by the rules of the 2006 order. Every commissioner found that hard, because it classes everybody as a victim, no matter what.

“I suppose people will blame them. But it’s not their fault.”

WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY ABOUT HOW ‘VICTIM’ IS DEFINED?

The Commission for Victims and Survivors emerged in the 2006 St Andrews’ agreement.

It opened two years later, and is a public body under the ambit of the Executive Office.

Previous commissioner Kathryn Stone refused to use the word “terrorists” to describe the UVF or IRA.

And one of the longest-running sores for innocent terror victims has been the way “victim” is defined in law.

This is what lies at the heart of the controversial so-called “victims’ pension” which survivors of Troubles attacks are supposed to be getting.

Some victims feel so strongly about the matter that they will flatly refuse to draw the pension if it is also available to paramilitaries.

The 2006 Victims and Survivors (NI) Order sets out the definition of victim which is used by the commission:

“Article 3 (1): In this Order references to “victim and survivor” are references to an individual appearing to the commissioner to be:

“(a) someone who is or has been physically or psychologically injured as a result of or in consequence of a conflict-related incident;

“(b) someone who provides a substantial amount of care on a regular basis for an individual mentioned in paragraph (a); or

“(c) someone who has been bereaved as a result of or in consequence of a conflict-related incident...

“An individual may be psychologically injured as a result of or in consequence of:

“(a) witnessing a conflict-related incident or the consequences of such an incident;

“(b) providing medical or other emergency assistance to an individual in connection with a conflict-related incident.”

‘WE NEED TO CHANGE THE JOB, NOT THE PERSON’

The heads of two major victims’ organisations also took to the airwaves yesterday to voice their feelings on Judith Thompson’s tenure.

Kenny Donaldson of the South East Fermanagh Foundation (and who also acts as a spokesman for the umbrella body Innocent Victims United, encompassing many individual victims’ groups) was joined on Radio Ulster by Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice.

The latter group, based in west Belfast, tends to be associated with republicans / nationalists (for instance, a recent article on its website refers to Northern Ireland as being the “UK Occupied North of Ireland”).

Mr Donaldson said: “It’s a matter of public record that we’d called for Ms Thompson’s term not to be renewed last year. Our focus now is on the future and where this goes.

“We feel there needs to be a fundamental review of the operations of the office of commissioner.

“Merely changing the personell without looking at its operation is not going to bring a seismic change.”

One of his complaints was the appearance on the victims’ forum of people with Troubles convictions, like ex-IRA bomber Robert McClenaghan.

Mr Donaldson said there is no requirement in law to include such people on the forum (Mr McClenaghan’s grandfather was killed by loyalists).

Mr Thompson meanwhile described Mr McClenaghan as being a member of Relatives for Justice, adding: “I think he’s an example of the complexity of victimhood... If we’re going to have a forum it has to be inclusive.”

Paul Gallagher, victim of a UDA gun attack, said whoever taken on the the role, it is a “poisoned chalice”.

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