PSNI Admit Failings About 1992 Loyalist Killings

Police failed to disclose "significant information" about a loyalist gun attack that left five people dead, the Ombudsman has said.

The discovery was made during an investigation into matters connected to the 1992 shootings at Sean Graham's bookmakers shop on the Ormeau Road in Belfast.

The watchdog had opened new lines of inquiry into the attack, as well as events connected to loyalist paramilitary activities in the north west between 1988 and 1994, and a separate murder of teenager Damien Welsh at a coal depot in west Belfast in 1993.

The PSNI said it never intended to deliberately withhold the information.

Ombudsman staff regularly made requests requiring police to search their appropriate information systems in order to provide all relevant information they held on specific matters. 

A key part of their investigative processes is to consider all the material available on a given line of inquiry as a means of establishing a consistent and evidence-based understanding of the events in question.

Investigators recently established police had not provided all the relevant information they held on the Ormeau Road shootings. 

"My staff became aware that police were preparing to disclose a range of material as part of impending civil proceedings. Following a request from this Office, police released this material to us which helped identify significant evidence relevant to a number of our investigations," said Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire.

"Following on from this, police have now also identified a computer system which they say had not been properly searched when responding to previous requests for information. In that instance, it would seem information which police told us did not exist has now been found."

Reports outlining the findings of these various investigations, which the Police Ombudsman had hoped to begin publishing in the coming weeks, will now be delayed.

A number of bereaved families have been informed.

"It is right and proper that we examine the material which has now become available to ensure that our work provides as complete a picture as possible for these families, for the public and for the police," the Ombudsman continued. 

"We will do this work as quickly as we can, but these new lines of inquiry must be fully explored."

Dr Maguire said he believes the effective disclosure of information is central to any system for dealing with the past in Northern Ireland.

"The public must have confidence that, when asked, police provide all the relevant information they hold on given matters, whether it be to this Office or to other legal authorities.

"The police have told us the problems came about through a combination of human error arising from a lack of knowledge and experience and the complex challenges associated with voluminous material (some 44 million pieces of paper and microfilm records) that is stored in various places and on a range of media and on archaic IT systems.

"In the interests of public confidence in policing, I have contacted the Department of Justice to ask that an independent review be carried out into the methods police use in disclosing information," he said.



(JG)