Victim's daughter '˜devastated' by Loughinisland court ruling

Emma Rogan, whose father Adrian who shot dead during the attack in June 1994, said the families will study the judgement over Christmas and then renew efforts “to defend the inconvenient truth” in the new year.

“Last Christmas, 2016, was the first Christmas since the atrocity whereby we felt that the truth had been set free and allowed to breath,” she said.

“This judgment, which has been delivered four days prior to Christmas Day, has devastated us all. We feel that the truth has again been suffocated.”

Mr Justice McCloskey held that the ombudsman went beyond his statutory powers in reaching certain conclusions on the Loughinisland atrocity – including that police officers had colluded with the UVF terrorists.

In a statement issued on behalf of the victims’ families, solicitor Niall Murphy said the case was “premised entirely on procedural grounds,” and that two former senior police officers who challenged the ombudsman’s findings “did not challenge a single fact” contained in the ombudsman’s report.

“The report was delivered in its entirety to the chief constable months in advance of publication.

“The chief constable, who then has a right to reply, to object to factual errors, did not take issue with the report as it was published, indeed he accepted the report in its entirety, as did the then prime minister David Cameron who personally wrote to the families on July 12, 2016, as did the then secretary of state Theresa Villiers,” Mr Murphy added.