Files stay closed on 49 killings by RUC

FAMILIES IN SHOCK AT REVELATION ABOUT CONTROVERSIAL DEATHS | POLICE OMBUDSMAN’S OFFICE IN THE DOCK AGAIN

The killing of Seán Downes in 1984

» BY PEADAR WHELAN

ALMOST 50 CONTROVERSIAL KILLINGS by the RUC cannot be reopened unless there is ‘new evidence’, it has just been revealed to families despite the Police Ombudsman’s office having concerns about this for four years and a British Supreme Court ruling as far back as May.
Families were only told of this on November 24th, just hours before the news was to be broken in the media, and the furore that followed has renewed calls for Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson to resign immediately instead of waiting till January.
The Supreme Court ruling did not prevent Hutchinson’s predecessor, Nuala O’Loan, from carrying out a three-month investigation into the death of Sammy Devenny, who was beaten by the RUC in his home in Derry City in April 1969. He died weeks later, in July 1969, with his family laying the blame for his death squarely at the door of the RUC. O’Loan said she was able to look again at the complaint from the Devenny family because she believed the case to be “grave and exceptional”. Hutchinson’s time in charge, however, appears to have been less vigorous.
Among the cases affected by the ruling are those of the six Armagh men killed in RUC shoot-to-kill operations in 1982, the killing of Seán Downes by an RUC plastic bullet at a Sinn Féin rally in Belfast in 1984, and Keith White, a Protestant youth shot dead by the RUC with a plastic bullet in Portadown in 1986.
The news has left the families of those killed by the RUC very angry. Sam McLarnon whose father, also named Sam, was shot dead in 1969 in Ardoyne, north Belfast, said: “It’s an absolute disgrace. The Police Ombudsman is saying he won’t investigate the murder of children by plastic bullets or mothers shot dead by police in their own homes.”
Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said the files relating to 49 cases of people killed by the RUC were sent to the Ombudsman four years ago, by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET). But because the HET is accountable to the PSNI, under European law it cannot investigate these cases as it is not deemed to be an independent body.
Gerry Kelly said: “Families who have loved ones killed have the right to an effective, independent and prompt investigation under law. This appears to be a legislative anomaly. If that is the case, then it needs to be fixed in legislation. I will be seeking clarity from the Minister for Justice because he is responsible for the powers vested in this office, including the power to compel retired police officers to co-operate with investigations by the Police Ombudsman.”