Collusion claims are repeated

Collusion claims are repeated

20 July 2016

SINN Féin MLA Chris Hazzard has called on the Police Ombudsman to investigate “clear and lethal” collusion between loyalist murder gangs and the RUC in Down.

A month after the Police Ombudsman’s damning indictment of police actions before and after the Loughinisland massacre, Mr Hazzard said a close examination of the report has uncovered other concerning issues.

During his examination of the activities of the UVF gang which was heavily involved in the murder of six men in Loughinisland in 1994, the Ombudsman, Dr Michael Maguire, also looked at other Loyalist attacks.

One of these was the murder of Kilcoo man, Peter McCormack, in the Thierafurth Inn in November, 1992 by two gunmen who burst into the lakeside bar and opened fire.

However, the report also highlighted an aborted attack on the Thierafurth several weeks earlier. The target on that occasion was Peter McCarthy, a cousin of Mr McCormack, but the gunmen called off the attack and abandoned their car near Bryansford.

Mr McCarthy this week claimed he only learned of the loyalist plot to kill him when he read the Ombudsman’s report and had not been told of the threat by the RUC.

Mr Hazzard said these were “disturbing revelations”.

“This is deeply distressing for both the individual concerned and the wider community,” he said.

“We also have learned from the Loughinisland report and subsequent commentary that state forces including the RUC and the UDR failed to effectively monitor and investigate the activities of loyalist murder gangs throughout the local area, leading ultimately to deadly attacks on The Theirafurth Inn, Kilcoo and The Heights Bar, Loughinisland.

“It is now time for further investigations into the 1992 attack on the Thierafurth Inn; the families and survivors of this deadly attack deserve to have their questions answered and have the full support of the local community in their search for truth and justice.” 

Peter McCormack’s sister Mary Sloan also said this week that she would like to see the killers held responsible.

Mrs Sloan said she can’t understand the motives of those who killed her brother.

“I wonder what happened to make them so bitter in the first place, that they could go out and kill a complete stranger and take satisfaction from it,” she said.

The Ombudman’s report found that within a year of Mr McCormack’s murder RUC Special Branch had identified the members of the gang who murdered him. But Special Branch had also discovered the same gang members had planned to kill Mr McCarthy two weeks earlier but aborted their mission.

Gavin Booth, solicitor for the Sloan family and Peter McCarthy, said: “There are a number of unanswered questions in relation to the Thierafurth Inn.

“The families deserve truth and we will be calling for that process.”