An allegation that police in Northern Ireland colluded with an IRA killer to prevent him being charged with murder because he was an informant was dismissed by the Police Ombudsman today.
Nuala O'Loan said an investigation had found no evidence police colluded to protect the gunman who shot and wounded a magistrate and killed his daughter more than 20 years ago. She said she also found no evidence that police had prior knowledge of the attack in south Belfast or that it could have been prevented.
But for the second time in a week she hit out at Special Branch, saying it had failed again to pass on all the information it had that could have been relevant to officers investigating a murder.
Resident Magistrate Tom Travers and his family were attacked as they left Mass at St Brigid's Roman Catholic Church in Derryvolgie Avenue in April 1984. Two men ran towards Mr Travers shooting him six times and fatally wounding his daughter Mary.
A woman, Mary Ann McArdle, was arrested shortly afterwards as she walked a dog along the nearby Malone Road. She was found in possession of two handguns — hidden in surgical stockings — and a grey wig. She was later convicted of the murder of Mary Travers and attempted murder of her father.
A man known as Man A, whom Mr Travers identified from police photographs and an informal ID parade as the man who shot him, was acquitted of the same charges.
Twenty years after the murder, a Sunday newspaper published articles that suggested Man A was a Special Branch informant and a "protected species".
It was suggested the RUC had colluded with him by allowing him to commit murder while being protected from the full rigours of the law. Mr Travers asked the Ombudsman to investigate the claim — later withdrawing the request — but Ms O'Loan decided it would be in the public interest to complete the investigation.
She said today she had found "no evidence that the RUC protected anyone from prosecution, that their investigation of the murder was deliberately frustrated or that they had any prior knowledge of the attack".
PA