NORTHERN IRELAND prosecutors have confirmed they will review a decision not to prosecute a police officer accused of protecting a suspect in a sectarian killing.
The move follows a request from a public inquiry examining the 1997 murder of Catholic father-of-three Robert Hamill, who was killed by a loyalist mob in Portadown, Co Armagh, as he walked home after a night out.
Armed police at the scene of the assault are accused of having failed to intervene during the attack, which left the 25-year-old with fatal injuries.
The inquiry yesterday issued an unscheduled interim report urging the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) to “reconsider urgently” a 2004 decision not to proceed with the prosecution of former RUC reserve constable Robert Atkinson for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mr Atkinson denies wrongdoing, as do his former colleagues.
The murdered man’s bereaved relatives welcomed this recommendation.
The PPS said it will look at the case and is contacting the attorney general to ask whether the inquiry can provide further information to inform the review. The PPS said its review would be conducted “as quickly as possible”.
The Hamill Inquiry opened in January last year and heard claims that, within days of the murder, the then RUC had evidence that a fellow officer protected one of the killers from prosecution.
The opening session of the inquiry was told that, within two weeks of the murder, police had names for those involved in the assault, and were aware of claims that Mr Atkinson warned one of the killers to dispose of clothes worn in the attack, and updated him on the investigation.
Mr Atkinson was one of four armed RUC officers in a police Land Rover parked at the scene of the assault in which Mr Hamill suffered serious head injuries. He died 11 days later in hospital without regaining consciousness.
Mr Atkinson denied the allegations made against him, and a charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice was withdrawn in 2004.
“The inquiry’s interim report, which was delivered to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland on January 29th, 2010, makes its recommendation on the basis solely of the inquiry’s concerns about the need to take into account all matters available which are relevant to making a decision whether or not to prosecute,” the inquiry said.
The intervention comes as it is still compiling its final report, which it signalled could take a considerable amount of time.
The Committee on the Administration of Justice human rights group, Sinn Féin and the nationalist SDLP welcomed news of the PPS review in the Hamill case. – (PA)