Victims' and Survivors' Commissioner to be appointed

A new Victims' and Survivors' Commissioner for Northern Ireland is to be appointed later this year, Secretary of State Peter Hain has said.

Mr Hain was speaking following a meeting with two relatives of victims killed in the Shankill bombing in 1993.

Michelle Williamson and Bobbie Baird, along with representatives of the DUP, met Mr Hain to express their concerns over the release of Shankill bomber Sean Kelly last week.

Following the meeting Mr Hain said: “I greatly appreciated meeting with both Michelle Williamson and Bobbie Baird and to have the opportunity to hear at first hand their personal concerns.

“I recognise that no one can really imagine the terrible suffering of those who have lost loved ones in such awful circumstances.

“In September I will be announcing the next steps on appointing a new Victims’ and Survivors’ Commissioner for Northern Ireland to oversee the provision of services to victims. We have already been consulting on a new strategy for victims, their families, carers and children and I will continue to talk to interested parties about the role and priorities for a Commissioner.”

Sean Kelly originally received a life sentence for killing nine civilians in the bombing of a fish shop on Belfast`s Shankill Road in 1993 in which his accomplice, Thomas Begley, also died.

However, he was released in 2000 as part of the early release scheme for prisoners under the Good Friday Agreement.

Kelly was returned to prison in June following a decision by Mr Hain that he had breached the terms of his licence. He was released from jail last week in light of the IRA announcement.

(MB/SP)