Call for inquiry into murder convictions

Call for inquiry into murder convictions

13 June 2018

NEWRY, Mourne and Down Council has called for an independent, judge-led inquiry into the convictions of three men jailed for the sectarian murder of a Castlewellan teenager more than 40 years ago.

The decision was taken at a meeting last week following a recent BBC NI Spotlight investigation which uncovered new evidence in relation to the murder of 17 year-old Francis Rice which the programme makers say raises serious doubts that the correct men were convicted of the killing.

Mr Rice was killed in May 1975 and six years later George Fitzpatrick and brothers Eric and Cyril Cullen were handed life sentences.

The BBC programme said while the murder was firmly believed to have been carried out by paramilitaries, none of those who went to jail was involved in a paramilitary organisation.

It claimed the only real evidence against them was their confessions, which they always claimed were pressured and tricked out of them by RUC detectives during interviews in Armagh’s Gough Barracks.

Police denied fabricating the confession statements and during their trial, the judge, Lord Justice O’Donnell, accepted the police evidence.

But the BBC’s Spotlight programme found that some of the detectives in the Castlewellan case later went on to be found to be lying under oath in another case — that of the so-called UDR Four — in 1986.

In that case, four members of the Ulster Defence Regiment confessed to killing Catholic man Adrian Carroll. But they always said their confessions were forced out of them. The court found the soldiers guilty.

The Spotlight programme uncovered that two of the detectives who lied under oath were detectives in the Castlewellan case, with one involved in taking the confessions of both Kirkpatrick and Eric Cullen.

The Cullen brothers and Kirkpatrick served 14 years in prison. Cyril Cullen passed away in 2016.

The motion calling for the independent judge-led inquiry into the convictions of the three men was tabled at last week’s meeting of Newry, Mourne and Down Council by Cllr Henry Reilly.

He said that given the “significant doubt” which had been cast on the validity of the convictions, the council should call for an inquiry.

Councillors spoke in support of the motion, stating there could be no justification for the murder of a 17 year-old and recognising the that recent publicity around the case had re-traumatised the victim’s family.

However, the Alliance Party said it could not support the motion, with Cllr Andrew McMurray saying there was an agreed mechanism in place to deal with the past.