THE NORTH’S Minister for Justice David Ford is to examine if a complicated “legal limbo” can be resolved which prevents the investigation of 49 cases in which RUC officers may have been responsible for killings.
These cases, some of them very controversial, were sent to the Police Ombudsman’s office four years ago by the Historical Enquiries Team but because of current legislation have not been investigated.
The team is charged with investigating past killings of the Troubles but because it is effectively part of the PSNI, it is precluded from inquiring into killings in which RUC officers may have been involved.
This is because under European legislation such investigations must be independent and the police cannot be seen to be investigating alleged killings by the police.
The team passed on the 49 cases to the Police Ombudsman’s office. However, under Northern Ireland legislation, ombudsman Al Hutchinson cannot conduct fresh investigations to determine whether RUC officers were guilty of criminal offences in respect of these cases.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Gerry Kelly has called for new legislation to correct what he called an “anomaly” in the law.
SDLP MLA Conall McDevitt has asked for a meeting with Mr Ford to discuss the “legal limbo”. Mr Hutchinson is also to ask the Northern Executive should new legislation be introduced.
Mr Ford said in Antrim yesterday he would examine the situation, adding it would be difficult to resolve.
“It is clearly a very complex issue which we will be looking at,” he said yesterday.
Mr Ford – who was attending a North-South seminar organised by the two probation services on the island and attended by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and addressed by Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland Sir Declan Morgan – said his officials would examine the options available that could resolve the problem.
Some of the deaths relate to an alleged shoot-to-kill policy adopted by the RUC in the early 1980s.
These relate to incidents such as the killings of IRA members Seán Burns, Gervaise McKerr and Eugene Toman in 1982, and of INLA members Peter Grew and Roddy Carroll in the same year.
Other controversial cases include the killing of Seán Downes during a Sinn Féin rally in west Belfast in 1984 and the death of Keith White, a Protestant shot in Portadown in 1986.
Mr Ford acknowledged the current situation would be difficult for families hoping to establish the truth behind the deaths of their relatives. “Clearly you would have to have sympathy for families who at the moment see no resolution of their problems, but we are clearly in a very difficult legal situation as to how we deal with their concerns,” he said.
