Police watchdog ‘unable to definitively conclude’ on gun claims

Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman has said she is “unable to definitively conclude” on allegations that guns were returned to paramilitaries and later used in murders.

Marie Anderson’s office probed two referrals from the Police Service of Northern Ireland and two public complaints which date back to 2015.

They centred around statements made by two men that the Weapons and Explosives Research Centre (WERC), part of RUC Special Branch, tested and then returned live weapons to the control of paramilitaries.

One statement was made by a former police officer attached to the WERC and reported as part of a television documentary.

The other statements were made by a civilian member of WERC staff to the Stevens Inquiry.

Both men alleged that operational guns returned to paramilitaries were subsequently used in the murders of police officers Harold Beckett and Gary Meyer on June 30 1990.

The ombudsman investigation also considered a complaint from Constable Beckett’s daughter about the RUC investigation into her father’s death, and the family of James Henry Babington, who was shot dead on October 4 1989.

His murder was linked ballistically to the murders of the two constables.

Mrs Anderson said her investigation established that the weapons referred to in the statements by the former police officer and former WERC employee were not those used in the murders of Constable Beckett and Constable Meyer.

“However, in light of the available evidence and intelligence, it has not been possible to conclude definitively on whether WERC had any involvement in the weapons which were used in their murders,” she said.

The ombudsman added that the Provisional IRA alone was responsible for their murders.

In terms of whether the accounts could be linked to other murders, Mrs Anderson said her investigators reviewed the murders of nine police officers and have been unable to conclusively identify any police officer who was killed in the circumstances described.

“This meant it was not possible to examine any related police investigation to establish whether it was adversely affected by a failure to disseminate relevant intelligence concerning firearms or associated suspects,” she added.

Mrs Anderson concluded saying she does not believe there was intelligence that could have prevented the murders.

“I am of the view, based on the available intelligence reviewed by Police Ombudsman investigators, that there was no intelligence that, if acted upon, would have been capable of preventing the murders of Henry Babington and Constables Beckett and Meyer,” she said.

“I believe that Henry Babington, Constable Beckett and Constable Meyer were the innocent victims of a campaign of terror mounted by republican paramilitaries.

“The Provisional IRA alone was responsible for the murders.”

Solicitor Kevin Winters of KRW Law, who is acting for the Babington and Beckett families, said those bereaved families have been left in an “impossible catch-22 position”.

He said the ombudsman indicated she was unable to investigate allegations of agent involvement because of resourcing issues, and equally was prevented by legislation from doing so.

“For that to happen the next of kin have been told they have no recourse other than to engage with ICRIR.

“Unfortunately, that puts these complainants in an impossible catch-22 position given the current Article 2 deficit underpinning ICRIR,” he said.

“Unless the new Legacy Commission entity due to be established under pending legislation has full powers to access intelligence touching upon matters of national security then these families, like so many other conflict bereaved, will be left in the dark and none the wiser on what really lay behind the systemic investigative failures identified by the ombudsman.

“Today’s revelations are a damning indictment on the respective police investigations, but in terms of truth recovery they are a half-way house.

“For them and so many other families the repeal of the Legacy Act cannot come quickly enough.”