RUC Special Branch used guns 'in 60 killings'

A BBC Spotlight investigation showing that a secret RUC Special Branch forensic team had withheld forensic reports from police inquiries, tampered with forensic evidence and handed weapons to Special Branch agents later used in 60 killings are to be raised by Sinn Féin with the Chief Constable of the PSNI and the North's Policing Board.

Sinn Féin Policing spokesperson Gerry Kelly MLA said he wants to know was there ever any PSNI investigation into the activities of the secret RUC Special Branch forensic team known as WERC (Weapons & Explosives Research Centre).

Astonishingly, the Director of the Police Ombudsman Historic Investigations Unit told the BBC that “four complex criminal investigations” are underway and killings that were carried out (with guns?) “that had been, at one point or another, in the hands of WERC”.

Gerry Kelly said that Tuesday night's BBC programme is further evidence of collusion by the British state in killings during the conflict and ongoing efforts to cover it up.

“We need to know is there any branch of the PSNI involved in any forensic work which is the exclusive remit of the Department of Justice’s Forensic Science NI,” Gerry Kelly said.

“Victims and their families demand and need answers to these questions.

“I will be raising this with the Chief Constable and the Policing Board and seeking a meeting with the Ombudsman in relation to this inquiry.”