Ombudsman fails to halt legal action

Ombudsman fails to halt legal action

25 July 2018

THE Police Ombudsman has failed in a bid to halt a legal action brought by a widow of one of victims of the Loughinisland massacre.

Marie Byrne, whose 39-year-old husband, Eamon, was among six men shot dead at the Heights Bar in June 1994, is suing over a previous incumbent’s report.

In 2011 former Ombudsman Al Hutchinson found insufficient evidence of collusion between RUC officers and the loyalist paramilitary killers.

Mrs Byrne is claiming damages in connection with the conclusions reached by Mr Hutchinson.

An application was mounted at the High Court in Belfast to have the case stopped at a preliminary stage for having no reasonable cause of action.

But although a judge agreed to strike out part of the claim for negligence, he rejected attempts to also halt breach of statutory duty allegations.

Murdered alongside Mr Byrne were Adrian Rogan (34), Malcolm Jenkinson (53), Barney Green (87), Daniel McCreanor (59) and Patrick O’Hare (35). A number of other people were seriously injured.

The UVF gunmen opened fire as their victims watched a World Cup football match.

In 2006 the families and survivors lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, alleging significant failures in the police investigation and collusion between RUC officers and the killers.

Among their concerns was the getaway car used by the terrorists being destroyed ten months after the shootings and not retained for evidential purposes.

In 2011 Mr Hutchinson, the Ombudsman at the time, published a report which was highly critical of aspects of the police investigation. However, he stopped short of saying there was collusion.

That report was later quashed by the High Court, resulting in a fresh investigation and new  findings reached by the current Ombudman, Dr Michael Maguire, in 2016.

According to Dr Maguire collusion between some officers and the loyalists was a significant feature in the murders.

Mrs Byrne’s lawsuit against the Police Ombudsman’s Office relates to the earlier report by Mr Hutchinson.

She alleges that she suffered personal injury, loss and damage as a result of negligence, breach of statutory duty, misfeasance in public office and breach of Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Lawyers for the watchdog body sought to have her case thrown out, contending that it amounted to an abuse of process.

Ruling on the application, Master McCorry said he could not safely say the alleged human rights violations were unarguable.

Turning to the claim for negligence, he noted this related to how the killings were examined before the Hutchinson report was published.

“The plaintiff has not suffered nervous shock as a result of a sudden appreciation of flaws in the investigative process, which would not of course of itself constitute a horrifying event,” Master McCorry said.

“Rather she has suffered an understandable distress at the way the investigation was handled.”

He held that her claim in negligence was to be struck out because she could not show, on the basis of pleadings and medical evidence, actionable loss or injury due to any alleged breach of duty of care by the defendant.

But the Master also confirmed: “The plaintiff’s claims pursuant to Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention are not struck out as disclosing no reasonable cause of action, and the same applies to the plaintiff’s claim in misfeasance in public office.”

The court ruling came in the same week in which Loughinisland victims protested in Belfast at the visit of Prime Minister Theresa May.

The victims group was joined by others including Irish Language and women’s rights advocates, who were also calling on the Prime Minister to afford them the same rights that exist in the Republic of Ireland and Britain.

Emma Rogan MLA, and daughter of Adrian Rogan who was murdered at the Heights Bar, said: “Countless British prime ministers for the past 24 years have turned their backs on us and other families of victims, and this includes Theresa May.

“We cannot remain silent anymore, our protest is key in showing the British Prime Minister that she has to afford us and the other groups who joined us the rights they deserve.”