MP URGES PLEDGE FOR ARRESTS OVER MASSACRE

THE PSNI is facing new demands to explain why it has not made any fresh arrests over the UVF massacre at Loughinisland. 

As the 19th anniversary of the atrocity in the village nears, South Down MP Margaret Ritchie is seeking assurances from the Chief Constable that police have not given up on catching the killer gang. Miss Ritchie has written to Matt Baggott demanding assurances in the wake of the serious crime review. The Sunday World first revealed this year that Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris, who was leading the review of evidence gathered by detectives after the UVF murders of six Catholics at the HiHeights Bar in June 1994, had completed the review.

JUSTICE

“It is vital that there is justice for the families of the six men killed in Loughinisland, and the five seriously injured,” said the SDLP MP. “If there is an opportunity to bring prosecutions as a result of a re-examination of the evidence, then it should be taken.” The PSNI has refused to reveal if the review has thrown up any new leads. But Miss Ritchie pointed out that 19 years after the massacre, there has not been one single prosecution. In former Ombudsman All Hutchinson’s 2011 report he ruled out security force or police collusion in the murders. But the families overturned that finding following a Judicial RReview last December. The new Ombudsman Michael Maguire is currently carrying out a new investigation. Relatives of the six men maintain the RUC and its successor, the PSNI, have had enough evidence to bring charges against members of the East Belfast-based UVF gang. They suspect a number of RUC agents operating inside the UVF were involved in the murders. The six men who were murdered included 87 year-old Barney Green and his nephew Dan McCreanor. Adrian Rogan; brothers-in-law Eamon Byrne and Patsy O’Hare, and Malcolm Jenkinson also died.

With many thanks to : Richard Sullivan, Sunday World.

Related articles

• Para Flags at Interface After ‘Peace Talks’ ! (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
• Psni/ruc Cherry-picking in It’s Approach to Loyalism ! (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
• Residents Groups Criticise Parades Talks in Cardiff ! (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
• ON 15th JULY I WAS ARRESTED BY THE PSNI/RUC DURING AN EARLY MORNING RAID ON MY HOME (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)
• Murdered RUC officers remembered (newsletter.co.uk)
• Police Said I Was Lucky to Be Alive (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)

IRISH REPUBLICAN NEWS SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

>>>>> Flash: Families angered by new Loughinisland cover-up
 The families of the men murdered by the unionist paramilitary UVF in a
 1994 massacre in Loughinisland, County Down have vehemently rejected an
 investigation by the PSNI Police Ombudsman into the killings.

 Al Hutchinson’s report refused to blame the attack on collusion, and
 said that the original police investigation had merely failed the
 families of those killed and injured.

 The report admitted the getaway car was destroyed by the RUC police,
 (later the PSNI). But it said only the RUC investigation was “lacking
 effective leadership and diligence”.  It said that records were “lost”
 and “opportunities were missed”.

 Six Catholic men, one of them aged 87, died when loyalist gunmen sprayed
 the Heights Bar in the County Down village with 200 bullets in 1994.

 The shootings at the Heights Bar happened as supporters watched the
 Irish soccer team play Italy during the World Cup.

 The six men who died were Adrian Rogan 34; Malcolm Jenkinson, 53; Barney
 Greene, 87; Daniel McCreanor 59; Patrick O’Hare, 35, and Eamon Byrne,
 39.

 At least one British double agent was linked to the murder gang. An RUC
 Special Branch informer inside the UVF, codenamed ‘Mechanic’, had
 supplied the car used in the shooting, which was subsequently destroyed
 by the RUC.

 Patrick McCreanor, a nephew of Dan McCreanor said: “How long will we
 keep on hearing the same old story. How many times can evidence go
 missing from police custody?”

 Maura Casement, a niece of Barney Greene said that the ombudsman refused
 to investigate a link between admitted British Army agent Brian Nelson
 and the murder weapon.

 The ombudsman’s report also made no mention at all of RUC’s undercover
 Special Branch, who are believed to have worked with at least one member
 of the murder gang.

 Aidan O’Toole who was a barman on the night of the murders said the
 report raised “serious inconsistencies”.

 “In some cases, police did not even bother to take fingerprints or DNA,”
 he said.

 “The RUC and the PSNI could not even identify one of the killers even
 though he left a hair behind.”

 Emma Rogan’s father Adrian was one of those killed.

 “For 11 years after the murder of our loved ones, police did not even
 have the focus and strategy to keep us informed,” she said.

 A solicitor representing the families of those killed also hit out at
 the report’s findings describing them as “unacceptable”.

 “The families consider that Al Hutchinson has performed factual
 gymnastics to avoid a conclusion”, Niall Murphy said

 “The families fear it is a case of see no evil, hear no evil, and report
 no evil by Mr Hutchinson”, he added.

 RESIGNATION DEMANDED

 The SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie has called for the Police Ombudsman to
 resign following his report.

 His findings were contrary “to a mountain of evidence of collusion”, she
 said.

 “After a very long wait the ombudsman’s report has come up short on
 Loughinisland. It completely lets down the victims’ families and the
 wider community.

 “Al Hutchinson paints a picture of an incompetent keystone cops type of
 police force when the reality was that the RUC and Special Branch were
 rotten to the core.

 “The ombudsman has done a great disservice to the families of those
 murdered, as he has done to other groups of victims.

 “It is now time for him to go. The office of the Police Ombudsman is
 vitally important to confidence in policing and justice in the north and
 Mr Hutchinson has repeatedly failed to measure up.”

 The South Down MP said the definition of collusion as set out by Judge
 Cory “involves the area of commission or omission, and in this case
 there has been omission by the then RUC”, Ms Richie said.

 “He seems to think that the failure of the RUC investigators to
 co-operate, the systematic destruction of evidence such as the car, the
 systematic failure to follow leads and even the failure to carry out
 forensics was incompetence – to me and to the families that mounts to
 collusion.

 “I think it is time to provide confidence and leadership in the police
 Ombudsman’s office, he should do the right thing and resign”, she added.

 Despite several arrests, no-one has ever been convicted of these
 murders.

 Local Sinn Fein Assembly member Caitriona Ruane said the report marked
 the beginning of a new phase in the relatives’ campaign for truth.

 “If ever there was a case which demonstrated collusion it is the murders
 at Loughinisland,” she said.

 “That is the only conclusion which can be reached, even from the
 information put in the public domain today by the ombudsman.

 “His failure to reach that very obvious conclusion on the basis of the
 evidence in front of him is a matter which he needs to explain.”
—————————————————————-

AN EXCECT COPY AS IT WAS PRINTED :  http://republican-news.org/subs