POLICING:THE PSNI acknowledged and apologised for police failures in the handling of threats against murdered solicitor Rosemary Nelson.
“The inquiry has produced a lengthy and critical report which I respect, and that we now need to study carefully,” Chief Constable Matt Baggott said.
“It has found that Rosemary Nelson was not given the attention, impartial treatment or protection that was her right and the responsibility of policing to provide. Where there are inadequacies and failings identified, I apologise to her family and friends, and on behalf of the police service, I am sorry.”
However, he pointed to the absence of any finding of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.
“The report was very clear it did not find evidence of collusion,” he said. “This is a day of reflection but I am mindful that the public inquiry itself has not made any recommendations, which I think is testament to the huge amount of change that has gone on in policing in the last decade,” he said. But he said it was right to say sorry for the mistakes that had been made.
“Rosemary Nelson was murdered in a brutal manner and it remains a matter of deep regret that no one has yet been prosecuted for this horrific crime,” he said. “Please be assured that if there is any possibility, whatsoever, of bringing those responsible for her murder to justice, we will not hesitate to act.
“With the renewed focus and impetus that the inquiry has provided, I appeal to anyone with information to contact the police.”
Human rights organisations were critical of the British government’s claim that there had not been outright collusion involving the police and loyalists.
Jane Winter, of British Irish Rights Watch, said the report’s findings were tantamount to collusion.
Mike Ritchie, of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, said the British government should identify reforms it would implement in the wake of the report.
The RUC George Cross Foundation said: “It is interesting to note that although there is some criticism of police systems and police officers, the inquiry report makes no recommendations. We hope this report will once and for all put to rest the offensive and now discredited allegations of collusion with the people who carried out this despicable murder.”
Unionists also greeted the finding of no collusion and criticised the costs of the public inquiry.
DUP MP David Simpson said: “The cost of this exercise is projected to be in excess of £45 million [€51.6 million]. It would seem as though, as has been the case in other inquiries of this nature, the biggest winners have not been those affected or the wider community but the lawyers.”
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said: “I trust the finding that there was no collusion in the murder of Rosemary Nelson will now be accepted and finally lay to rest another republican myth.”
Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd said, “the evidence uncovered by the inquiry will make uncomfortable reading for the British state. What is clear on an initial reading is that the evidence uncovered by the inquiry team does not match its conclusions in terms of collusion . . . No amount of disgraceful spinning by Owen Paterson will alter that reality.”
SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie pointed to the litany of failings by the police and the Northern Ireland Office, and asked: “If these failings are not tantamount to collusion, then exactly what do they amount to?” Alliance MP Naomi Long pressed the Northern Secretary to establish a “ process to address the legacy of the past”.