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13 August 1998 Edition

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Unionist Law and Order

By Mary Nelis

The news that the last of the Shankill Butchers, William Moore, was released from prison in July barely roused a whisper from those unionists who go into a paroxysm of hysteria each time a republican prisoner of war is freed.

The release of Thomas McMahon who had served 19 years for his part in the Mountbatten killing in August 1979, brought down a deluge of fury and condemnation from the ``righteous brothers'', Donaldson and Robinson. They were wheeled out ad nauseam by the TV and radio hacks to scream that the release of this ``notorious killer'' was another concession to the IRA.

Yet the release of Moore seemed to have produced a state of collective amnesia among the media in general and unionist politicians in particular. Perhaps Jeffery and Peter, and that community which is forever proclaiming its devotion to law and order, never mind its culture and religion, don't want to be reminded of the gruesome details of that period from 1972 when Catholics became the targets for the serial killers of the UVF and their mutilated bodies began appearing on the waste grounds around the Shankill Road.

It is widely believed that Mr Moore, a former meat packer, supplied the knives and meat cleavers used by the UVF gang to mutilate their victims. And mutilate them they did. Some of the victims recieved over 200 stab wounds. The RUC at the time, described the murders as motiveless or mysterious, carried out by one person, whom they stated was a ``Jack the Ripper'' character.

But the Shankill Butchers, who stripped, tortured, and murdered Catholics, were not psychopaths, nor were the killings motiveless.

The Shankill Butcher murders were part of a co-ordinated campaign by loyalist death squads to terrorise the Catholic population into withdrawing support for the IRA. The gang were caught when one of their victims, although seriously injured, lived, and was able to identify his kidnappers and torturers.

There were allegations of collusion with the security forces, and indeed among the gang was a British soldier and member of the UDR.

It was hardly surprising that the British army and the RUC not only refused to deal with the campaign of terror, but they denied that it even existed.

Such double standards within the RUC, the unionists and the media, didn't begin with their attitude and the Mountbatten incident or the Shankill Butchers. It was, and still is, the stock in trade of the structure of the 6 county state and forms the basis for that Unionist particularity known as Law and Order.

The sprinkling of one's career with bigoted attacks on Catholics always added significantly to the chances of appointment and promotion.

Within the RUC and the judiciary, sectarian bias is most evident in the preferring of charges and the differential in sentencing. This is evident in the large number of Catholic males given life sentences with recommendations, an issue overlooked by unionist spokespersons, in their vociferous denunciations of the release of prisoners, who on the whole have served longer sentences than those from the various loyalist factions.

This peculiarity and bias in the law should form the basis of a legal enquiry by impartial observers of the administration of justice, unionist-style over the past 30 years. It could examine the role played by the various judges, including that distinguished member of the bar, Lord Justice Babington, whose family has served Unionism for generations. In 1981, the Lord Justice fined a man £600 on a charge of possessing a large collection of ammunition and firearm components. The man, a security guard at Hillsborough Castle, was also a member of that sinister organisation Tara, well known for its connections with the Kincora Boys Home and William McGrath, the housemaster at the centre of allegations of a paedophile ring servicing the security forces

Babington, in accepting the man's admission that he kept the arsenal for protection, made the comment, ``In considering the state of affairs in the North of Ireland, one would not be surprised if persons did find it incumbent upon them to seek the oddest kind of solution to the problem. I am satisfied you were behaving and acting as a good patriot should''.

In Derry this week, a whole string of ``good patriots'', escorted by David Nicholl, UDP spokesperson for the UDA, gave themselves up to the RUC for the attempted murder of two Catholic brothers in the city some weeks ago. Two other ``good patriots'' had already been charged, not with attempted murder, although the RUC claimed they were investigating a sectarian murder attack.

These seven people, all connected to the UDA were arraigned on the lesser charge of grevious bodily harm. If they ever come to trial, they can be assured that their patriotism will be recognised and suitably rewarded.

In the light of this, Unionist spokespersons should put up or shut up on prison releases.

An Phoblacht
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