Hearings into Hamill killing set for January

The stalled public inquiry into the killing of a Catholic man by a loyalist mob four years ago will get under way early next year, it was revealed today.

Robert Hamill (25), was beaten unconscious by a mob in Portadown, Co Armagh as he walked home with friends in 1997. He never regained consciousness and died in hospital of his injuries.

Relatives claim that RUC officers at the scene failed to intervene. No one was convicted of the crime.

The Robert Hamill Inquiry has already cost £17 million before oral hearings begin after a string of legal challenges, but today the Hamill Inquiry, set up in November 2004, revealed that stalled public hearings on the case will now begin on January 13th.

In January 2007 the Hamill family wrote to the Northern Ireland Secretary of State requesting that the terms of reference be extended to include the DPP, and that request was rejected in March this year.

The family challenged the decision in a judicial review and in July this year, a judge ordered Secretary of State Shaun Woodward to consider if widening the inquiry to include the role of the prosecution service was in the public interest.

But Mr Woodward concluded that the public interest did not require an extension to the terms of reference to the Robert Hamill Inquiry, and that the inquiry's terms allow it to examine the DPP’s role in investigating the death.

The inquiry’s terms of reference make no specific mention of the DPP.

The Hamill family solicitor, Rosemary Nelson, alleged RUC mishandling of the case and though a number of people were brought before the courts no one was convicted for the murder.

Mrs Nelson was murdered by loyalists in a car-bomb attack in 1999. Her death is also the subject of a public inquiry after claims security forces colluded in her killing.

Additional reporting PA