ROSEMARY NELSON: killed by bomb in 1999

Rosemary Nelson (40), a practising solicitor and married mother of three, died as a result of injuries she received when a bomb…

Rosemary Nelson (40), a practising solicitor and married mother of three, died as a result of injuries she received when a bomb attached to her car exploded on March 15th, 1999.

She had risen to public prominence by representing Garvaghy Road residents who were trying to prevent an Orange Lodge parade pass through their community.

Among her other clients were a man charged with the murder of two RUC officers but later acquitted, and the family of Robert Hamill, who was killed by a loyalist mob in Portadown.

Judge Peter Cory, who last year investigated allegations of collusion in her death, found that she had been the subject of various death threats since the mid-1990s.

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As well as receiving anonymous telephone calls and letters, she was told by certain clients that RUC officers had made her the target of abusive, insulting and demeaning remarks.

Judge Cory noted that when it became known that she was representing a client charged with the murder of two RUC officers in June 1997, "the threats against her appeared to escalate".

Her family had been campaigning for a public inquiry into the murder, and allegations of collusion, since her death.