07/02/2007

PSNI response to Ombudsman's report due

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is expected to respond to the Police Ombudsman's report on alleged collusion between Special Branch Officers and loyalist paramilitaries in north Belfast in a report to the Policing Board later today.

The PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde will present the report to the Board, as well as giving the police response to the findings of the Ombudsman's report.

A public meeting of the Policing Board is due to take place afterwards.

The Ombudsman's report, which was issued at the end of last month, revealed that an investigation into a number of murders dating from the early 1990s, had found that they had been carried out by loyalist paramilitaries who were in collusion with RUC officers.

It is understood that 12 murders were carried out, including the murder of Raymond McCord Junior, 22, who was found beaten to death in a quarry on the northern outskirts of Belfast in November 1997.

Since his murder, the victim's father, also Raymond, always maintained that he believed that Special Branch Officers in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries were responsible for his sons death.

(EF/SP)

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