O’Loan Raises Questions – But Doesn’t Give Answers
The family of two young men murdered by a pro-British death squad has said that a report into the double murder by the Police Ombudsman in the Six Counties has produced more questions than answers about collusion.
Gerard Cairns (22) and his 18-year-old brother Rory were gunned down by two masked men who burst into the family home at Bleary, midway between Lurgan and Portadown in County Armagh, on the evening of October 28, 1993.
In the hours before the Cairns' killings, the British military and RUC set up a series of roadblocks near their isolated home. Gerard and Rory's killers were able to pass through these roadblocks unhindered. No one has ever been convicted in connection with their murders.
The family of Rory and Gerard had lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman claiming the RUC and British army had prior knowledge of the attack on the their home, and that they had allowed a clear path for the murderers through an unusually high level of Crown forces activity in the area.
They further claimed the RUC failed to carry out a proper investigation and failed to keep the family updated on its progress. In addition, the family alleged that two notorious unionists had carried out the attacks but had not been charged because they were paid British agents.
In relation to Mr Cairns' allegations about these two prominent figures, the Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan said, as a matter of policy, she could neither confirm nor deny whether either had been an agent of the British state.
O`Loan concluded in her report that:
Most of the significant forensic exhibits relating to the case had been lost by the RUC.
All records of interviews with nine suspects quizzed by the RUC were destroyed as, according to them, they had been contaminated with asbestos.
There was evidence that not all intelligence relating to the murders had been passed on by RUC Special Branch.
In a previous report relating to the "Operation Ballast" investigation, which dealt with 10 murders (including that of Raymond McCord Jr), 10 attempted murders and other shootings, O'Loan stated:
“In his Stevens 3 Report Lord Stevens defined collusion as "the wilful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence and evidence, the extreme of agents being involved in murder."
“In his reports on his Collusion Enquiries into the deaths of Patrick Finucane, Robert Hamill, Rosemary Nelson, and Billy Wright, Judge Cory states that,
"the definition of collusion must be reasonably broad… That is to say that army and police forces must not act collusively by ignoring or turning a blind eye to the wrongful acts of their servants of agents, or supplying information to assist them in their wrongful acts, or encouraging them to commit wrongful acts. Any lesser definition would have the effect of condoning or even encouraging state involvement in crimes, thereby shattering all public confidence in these important agencies."
“The Police Ombudsman has used these definitions for the purposes of examining whether collusion has been identified in the course of this investigation.”
Despite using these definitions as the yardstick to measure whether or not there had been collusion in relation to "Operation Ballast", O'Loan appeared to set that definition aside in the case of the Cairns' brothers when she concluded, "There is nothing to suggest that the security forces colluded in the brutal murders of Gerard and Rory."
Mrs O`Loan said the RUC investigation of the murders had been flawed - and she also revealed that Special Branch had withheld intelligence.
"A number of significant investigative opportunities were missed, and forensic evidence has since gone missing. It is also a matter of serious concern that Special Branch failed to pass on all relevant intelligence," she wrote.
"I have therefore upheld Mr Cairns' complaint that police failed to conduct a robust and thorough investigation of this tragic case."
At the same time, she upheld the complaint that the family had not been kept informed about the RUC investigation.
O’Loan also said that after "the initial stages of the investigation, within three months it had been stripped of resources and had effectively ground to a halt."
She expressed "grave concern" that the RUC had begun to wind down the investigation within just two weeks of the killings. At a press conference held following the publication of O'Loan's report, the Cairns family questioned the Ombudsman's rejection of British Crown forces involvement in events surrounding the killings.
Eamon Cairns, father of the two young men stated, "Nuala O'Loan found evidence that the RUC investigation was flawed, poor and devoid of any real determination to bring those who killed Gerard and Rory to justice. "
"She found that the Special Branch withheld evidence and the RUC not only supposedly lost all the forensic evidence and suspect statements but effectively wound up the entire murder inquiry just weeks after Gerard and Rory were killed."
Eamon continued, "Rather than dismissing collusion, I suggest that Mrs O'Loan's report raises further suspicions that there was collusion. It provides ample evidence of a subsequent cover-up after the murders to ensure any evidence would never come to light."
"We believe that the restricted terms of reference which Nuala O'Loan was forced to work under meant that she was never going to be allowed to identify collusion. However, the facts are that weapons used to murder my sons were smuggled into the North through British army agent Brian Nelson. Vital forensic evidence, suspect statements and security force log books were all either destroyed or mysteriously lost by the RUC."
During the course of her investigation O'Loan interviewed a former RUC man who could have provided evidence central to the capture of the killers had his evidence been acted upon.
This man, who had been present at an auction in Portadown where the killers bought the car used in the murder, told the Ombudsman's investigation team that he had positively identified the buyer of the car at an identity parade in a Lurgan RUC Barracks three months after the murder. The officer who was in charge of the identity parade states that no positive identification was made.
This clear contradiction in relation to this crucial identification evidence demonstrates how the original investigation was handled.
In relation to this newly discovered fact Eamon Cairns said, "A retired policeman identified a key suspect as having bought the car used in the murders but his evidence was never acted upon. That suspect was arrested (two weeks later) in a van in possession of a loaded weapon but never went to prison.
“All the interviews of him supposedly being questioned about my sons murders were mysteriously destroyed, just like all the other records of the police interviews with the main suspects. If this is not evidence of a cover-up, I don't what is.
"We knew from day one that Nuala O'Loan wasn't going to be allowed to identify those who killed Rory and Gerard because they were police agents."
Among the chief suspects in the murders were Robin Jackson and Billy Wright, who, between them, are believed to have been involved in the murders of scores of civilians on behalf of the British state.
As a result of the limited nature of inquiries such as O’Loan’s, the identities and current status of Britain’s other murderous agents in Ireland remain a closely guarded secret.