Judge Cory recommends public inquiries into killings

Peter Cory, the Canadian judge who has been probing some of Northern Ireland's most controversial murders, has recommended that public inquiries be opened into the circumstances of four killings.

Judge Cory, who was invited by the government to look at six of the Troubles' most notorious murders, has passed on his recommendations to Downing Street that inquiries be held into the deaths of solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, the loyalist leader Billy Wright and Portadown man Robert Hamill.

Judge Cory is also understood to have asked the Irish government to hold an inquiry into the murders of two senior RUC officers, Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan.

Commenting on the news, Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy said: "Today the Corry report has been delivered to the British government. The last obstacle put in the place of these families search for the truth has been removed.

"These families should not have had to go through this process in the first place. The validity of their cases is well known. The British government have stalled their search for the truth for long enough.

"Sinn Féin will continue to support these families in their pursuit of the truth into the death of their loved ones and we once again call upon the British government to speedily establish the independent judicial inquires which they know are required."

It is not yet known what response the government will make on the recommendations, namely whether there will be four independent inquiries into each death or something completely different.

No decision has been made either into when they will respond to the recommendations and how.

(MB)