McCord insists police must be charged for covering up killings

Family reaction: Raymond McCord expressed his anger at the covering up of his son's murder and top-level collusion between the…

Family reaction:Raymond McCord expressed his anger at the covering up of his son's murder and top-level collusion between the RUC and UVF informers. He said he was also disappointed with unionist parties.

He thanked Mrs O'Loan for her work and for uncovering the fact that evidence about UVF murders was destroyed.

Mr McCord called for a full and independent, international inquiry and criticised remarks by British prime minister Tony Blair as a "PR exercise".

"I want Tony Blair and the attorney general to sit in front of my family and tell me why these officers should not be charged. I want him to tell me why the people who murdered my son were never charged."

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Mr McCord, himself the subject of UDA intimidation for many years, said the report showed the UVF in north Belfast were "allowed to do whatever they wanted".

The collusion between the paramilitary group "went right to the very top of the RUC," he said.

Mr McCord said he had spoken to many CID officers who told him they were not being allowed to do their job. "Police officers were covering up murders. These police officers should be charged today," he said.

Mr McCord said he met a current assistant chief constable, Peter Sheridan. "He admitted that what was going on was wrong. He is the new face of policing."

He described his family's long fight for recognition of RUC collusion in their son's murder. "Unionists ridiculed my family and refused to meet us. Apart from Lady Sylvia Hermin who fought for us, all of the unionist parties have failed us. We had to go to the Falls Road to meet Gerry Adams and Mark Durkan," said Mr McCord.

Publication of the ombudsman's report does not signal the end of the matter for the McCord family. "It is over when the people who murdered Raymond are in jail. The police and the security services thought we would go away. We have not gone away and we are not going to."