Northern Secretary Peter Hain and some of his senior civil servants were last night at the centre of a serious judicial and political dispute over the appointment of the North's interim victims' commissioner Bertha McDougall, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
Belfast High Court judge Mr Justice Girvan yesterday queried whether Mr Hain was guilty of perverting the course of justice. The judge has already described the appointment as a confidence building gesture to the DUP.
Mr Hain yesterday denied deliberately attempting to mislead the court. Northern and Westminster political sources said that if a London-based minister was at the centre of this case he or she would have no option but to resign.
Conservative Party spokesman David Lidington stopped short of calling for Mr Hain to resign. He said, however: "The criticisms contained in Mr Justice Girvan's judgment today are a devastating indictment of the secretary of state and his advisers."
The British attorney general Lord Goldsmith, at the request of Mr Justice Girvan, is to carry out an investigation into whether Mr Hain or his senior officials deliberately misled the Belfast High Court in relation to the victims' commissioner. Lord Goldsmith agreed to the inquiry after the judge yesterday sent him 67 questions about how Mr Hain and senior civil servants dealt with the appointment.
The case hinges on a judicial review into whether the appointment was correctly handled and whether incorrect information was given to a west Belfast woman who challenged the appointment.
"If incorrect and misleading information was deliberately given to put the applicant on a false trail then prima facie that conduct would appear to fall within the concept of perverting the course of justice," the judge said. Earlier this month he ruled the appointment improper. It also emerged in the High Court yesterday Mrs McDougall learned of the post from DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, who advised her to put her name forward.
Her appointment was challenged through a judicial review by Brenda Downes, widow of a Belfast man who died after he was struck by an RUC plastic bullet. She questioned whether Mrs McDougall - whose integrity is not in question - could command cross-community support and whether she was the best person for the post. Mr Justice Girvan said it was now accepted that a letter sent by the Northern Ireland Office in response to Ms Downes's queries wrongly created the impression Mrs McDougall had been appointed as the best candidate.
Mr Hain said Lord Golsmith's inquiry would receive "our full co-operation".