RUC foundation ‘appalled’ at claims by victims’ group Relatives for Justice

Speaking in a debate about whether those guilty of serious crimes should be excluded from the Troubles pension, Relatives for Justice (RFJ) CEO Mark Thompson said that police officers he spoke to regarded former RUC constable Alan Moore as a victim of the Troubles.

In 1992 Mr Moore murdered three people in the Sinn Fein office on the Falls Road, before taking his own life.

Mr Thompson told BBC Talkback this week that the RUC George Cross Foundation is still supporting the former RUC officer.

“He [Alan Moore] receives help from the RUC George Cross Foundation,” Mr Thompson said on Tuesday. “He is on the roll of honour for the RUC at the PSNI HQ and his family receives support from the RUC through public money.”

Mr Thompson said that Mr Moore’s case showed why looking at the Troubles in black and white misses the “complexity” of what happened. He added that “we can’t keep saying, well our people are better than your people, you did this, you did that, pointing fingers and scoring points”.

However, former ACC Stephen White, chair of the RUC George Cross Foundation, said he and his members were furious.

“I am appalled that Mark Thompson on BBC Radio Ulster Talkback said that RUC officer Alan Moore – who murdered three men in 1992 – receives support from the RUCGC Foundation.

“This is utter nonsense and a complete untruth as the constable – who all right-thinking people recognise as a murderer – killed himself after he committed his crimes.

“To say that I’m disappointed in Mark Thompson’s false allegation is an understatement. He diminishes the foundation which was established in law to ‘mark the sacrifices and honour the achievements of the RUC’ and insults all those law-abiding police officers who served with courage and distinction.

“Furthermore he said the officer is on our roll of honour. Our roll of murdered officers is simply that – Constable Moore was not murdered and his name is not recorded with those decent men and women slaughtered by terrorists.”

It is understood his name is recorded along with every other officer who died in service, such as through illness, road accidents and suicide.

The News Letter invited Relatives for Justice to respond but it said that Mr Thompson was not available for comment.

Relatives for Justice says it was initially founded for relatives of those killed by members of the security forces or loyalists, but that today it supports people of all backgrounds.

• BBC Talkback read out a statement from Mr White at the end of the same episode in which he was allowed to put the above points across.

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