Collusion – The Cover Up Continues
The Police Ombudsman for the Six Counties has concluded that death threats made against Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson months before she was murdered in March 1999 were not properly investigated by the RUC.
The Ombudsman initiated the investigation following a complaint from Belfast-based human rights group, the Committee on the Administration of Justice.
The CAJ had sent copies of two written threats against Mrs Nelson to the Northern Ireland Office and asked it to forward the documents to Ronnie Flanagan, then RUC chief constable, seven months before the solicitor was killed.
The Ombudsman's report said it found no evidence that the NIO had forwarded the documents to the chief constable's office, but instead faxed a general letter about the issues raised in the leaflet. However, the ombudsman said the RUC were aware of the threats and did not deal with either the letter or the leaflet properly.
Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan said the RUC should have made more strenuous efforts to establish a clearer picture of the level of risk and threat to the renowned human rights solicitor. Nelson had developed a high profile in the mid to late 1990’s as a result of her courageous representation of the residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in their struggle against Orange Order marches being forced through their community.
Concluding that the RUC's assessment of Mrs Nelson's situation, and its subsequent actions, were inadequate, Mrs O'Loan stated that the RUC should have made more strenuous efforts to establish a clearer picture of the level of risk and threat to Mrs Nelson, particularly given her profile at the time. Mrs O'Loan added "They did not acknowledge the existence of the previous death threats, including two threats which were said to have come from police officers. Nor did they acknowledge a previous assessment in which Special Branch believed Mrs Nelson was at a 'degree of risk'.”
In a public statement, CAJ Director Maggie Beirne said,
"Rosemary Nelson was a committed and highly professional lawyer who acted for clients from all sections of the community. Precisely because of this commitment and her effectiveness as a lawyer, she became a target for threats from a variety of sources. The Ombudsman has confirmed that those threats were not treated with the gravity and urgency required."
Beirne continued,
"Amongst the documents supplied to the police in advance of Rosemary's murder was material that, in our view, later proved of direct relevance to the murder inquiry. If this information had been properly investigated, it may have led the police to the individuals responsible for her murder."
Éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac An Mháistír, said that the Ombudsman's report highlighted failures by both the RUC and NIO to take the threats to Rosemary’s life seriously.
"O'Loan's report makes it clear that the RUC did not handle the investigation into unionist death threats against Rosemary Nelson properly. They also turned a blind eye to threats made by RUC personnel against Mrs Nelson.”
"Significantly, while also critical of the NIO, the report makes no reference whatsoever to the fact that representatives of the nationalist community in Portadown had, in fact, raised issues regarding threats to Rosemary’s life directly with Jonathon Powell, the chief of staff for then British prime minister Tony Blair in the summer of 1998 – nine months before Rosemary's murder.”
“Indeed, a copy of the leaflet referred to by O'Loan in her report was given to Powell by those same representatives at a meeting in Armagh which Rosemary also attended.”
Daithí continued,
"There remains a considerable body of opinion which believes that British state agents were directly involved in Rosemary Nelson's murder. That belief has been strengthened over the years as successive regimes within the NIO and the RUC-PSNI have sought to frustrate the search for the truth. This report is another indictment of policing practices by the RUC and also questions practices within the NIO.”
However, that the discredited practices of the RUC in relation to collusion with unionist death-squads can been seen in recent utterances by the current RUC-PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper on 4 September, the man in charge of British policing in Ireland conceded that he was actively taking advice about asking British Secretary of State for the North, Shaun Woodward, to issue Public Interest Immunity Certificates - a powerful gag often used by the RUC - allowing him to keep the names of agents and informers secret from the inquiries set up into four high profile murders in the the Six Counties – namely those of Rosemary Nelson, fellow solicitor Pat Finucane, Portadown man Robert Hamill and pro-British death squad leader Billy Wright.
Indeed, earlier this week, the inquiry into the death of Wright was informed that secret intelligence material relating to the killing may be suppressed or withheld. The inquiry hearing in Banbridge, County Down was told that the British Ministry of Defence is seeking a ministerial gagging order to suppress other sensitive information. Inquiry chairperson Lord MacLean also criticised the RUC-PSNI for withholding intelligence material and accused them of delaying the inquiry by holding back intelligence - which he gave those responsible one month to produce.
Daithí Mac An Mháistír concluded,
"These moves throw up several questions about the British Government's willingness to deal with its role, and the role of its agents, in a large number of murders of Irish people. They indicate that the British Ministry of Defence, the RUC-PSNI, and other British security agencies are determined to keep secrets about the extent of collusion beyond public reach."