Finucane murder inquiry focuses on ex-FRU chief

A former head of a secretive military intelligence unit in Northern Ireland is to be investigated by the team looking into possible collusion with security forces in the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

The investigation team, led by Metropolitan police commissioner Sir John Stevens, revealed today that it was preparing prosecution papers for the Director of Public Prosecution in relation to Brigadier Gordon Kerr.

Brigadier Kerr, who is now military attache in Beijing, was formerly head of military intelligence Force Research Unit in Northern Ireland at the time of Mr Finucane's murder.

Responding to the news, Mr Finucane's widow Geraldine again called for a judicial public inquiry into his killing.

This call was echoed by both SDLP policing spokesperson, Alex Attwood, and Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly.

Mr Attwood said the comments from Sir John "confirm all the reasons why there should be a public independent international judicial inquiry" into Mr Finucane's murder.

"The Stevens investigation needs now to be concluded quickly, prosecutions pursued and the truth revealed through the convening of the independent inquiry," he added.

Gerry Kelly also called for a judicial inquiry and said that the Finucane case will "not simply go away".

Pat Finucane, a high-profile Catholic solicitor, was shot dead by members of loyalist paramilitary organisation the Ulster Defence Association in front of his family at his home in 1989.

It has been alleged that the UDA were aided in their murder by sources inside British military intelligence and RUC Special Branch.

Only one person has faced charges in relation to Mr Finucane's murder. But the case against William Stobie, a self-confessed former UDA quartermaster, was dismissed in November 2001 through lack of evidence.

Mr Stobie, who was working for security forces at the time of the murder, was shot dead by loyalists outside his Glencairn home in Belfast just a month after his trial.

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