NI police colluded with killers
Police colluded with loyalists behind over a dozen murders in north Belfast, a report by the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland has confirmed.
Nuala O'Loan's report said UVF members in the area committed murders and other serious crimes while working as informers for Special Branch.
It said two retired Assistant Chief Constables refused to cooperate with the investigation.Special Branch officers gave the killers immunity, it said. The officers ensured the murderers were not caught and even "baby-sat" them during police interviews to help them avoid incriminating themselves. The Special Branch officers "created false notes" and blocked searches for UVF weapons.
The report, published on Monday, called for a number of murder investigations to be re-opened. But it is unlikely that any of the police officers involved will be prosecuted - the ombudsman said that evidence was deliberately destroyed to ensure there could not be prosecutions.
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They also paid almost £80,000 to leading loyalist Mark Haddock, jailed for 10 years last November for an attack on a nightclub doorman. The ombudsman's investigation began more than three years ago when Belfast welder Raymond McCord claimed that his son, also called Raymond, had been killed by a police informer. The former RAF man, 22, was beaten to death and his body dumped in a quarry in 1997. Mr McCord has said he wants those who murdered his son to be put in prison. He said he had received a death threat at the weekend from the UVF.
Mr McCord said that during his campaign of justice for his son he had been made to feel by police that he was "some sort of crank".
Well the state was even handed, it had agents such as stakeknife on one side and haddock on the other. An excellent managerial solution to the social and economic problems of ni, and invaluable on the job r&d for our security services.
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