RUC stays on Nelson murder case despite highly critical report

The report on the RUC's inquiry into allegations of police death threats against the murdered Lurgan solicitor, Ms Rosemary Nelson, has prompted widespread political concern, including initial, though later qualified, comment from unionists.

While nationalists said the highly critical report made demands for an independent international murder inquiry all the more compelling, one senior unionist, in initially expressing concerns about the handling of the inquiry, said the RUC was the best body to convict those responsible. The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, said none of the officers accused in the report had been suspended, but that none of them would be involved in the RUC inquiry into Ms Nelson's murder by loyalist paramilitaries last Monday week.

The report by the Independent Commission on Police Complaints (ICPC), detailed yesterday in The Irish Times, focused on complaints of police hostility to Ms Nelson and to the investigation itself. It spoke of an "observable general hostility, evasiveness and disinterest" on the part of 21 RUC officers against whom the allegations were made.

The ICPC report also expressed serious concerns about the conduct of the RUC chief inspector responsible for dealing with the day-to-day investigation. Matters central to the inquiry "were either not addressed or addressed unsatisfactorily", the report said.

The RUC Chief Constable invited his counterpart on the Kent force, Mr David Phillips, to supervise, with FBI assistance, the RUC inquiry into Ms Nelson's killing. Mr Phillips and the FBI accepted that the RUC was the best body to handle the day-to-day investigation.

The Northern Ireland Office minister, Lord Dubs, rejected calls for the RUC to be removed from the inquiry. The RUC was the best body to investigate the murder, he said yesterday.

"What we want is an inquiry that is open and transparent. We want one that is effective, and of course the Chief Constable of Kent and the FBI will be there to see that there is a proper and independent and objective inquiry," he said.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan said none of the RUC officers had been suspended because they had the same right under the law as everyone else. "They are innocent until anybody proves that they are guilty," he said.

The RUC in a statement said that "everything humanly possible will be done to bring to justice those responsible for the cowardly and brutal murder of Mrs Nelson".

Mr Michael McGimpsey, security spokesman for the Ulster Unionist Party in the Assembly, made two comments on the ICPC report. Yesterday morning, he said action should be taken against the police officers identified in the report.

He favoured the RUC handling the inquiry. "A murder investigation should not be inhibited on the back of some individuals in that force behaving badly and in a less than professional manner. I understand the sensitivities of Mr Nelson and the Nelson family, but I would put it to everyone that the people best able to catch these murderers are the RUC."

Later yesterday, Mr McGimpsey issued a statement saying that unfortunately the public focus was on how the RUC investigated the case, rather than on catching Ms Nelson's killers. "Sadly, some seem more interested in denigrating the RUC than in seeing justice done," he said.

He said Cmdr Niall Mulvihill, of the London Metropolitan Police, who took over the inquiry from the RUC and conducted it to the satisfaction of the ICPC, had also assessed the RUC investigation into allegations of RUC death threats against Ms Nelson.

"I call for Mulvihill's assessment of how the RUC conducted its investigation to be published as a matter of urgency. After all, the ICPC says it accepts that Mulvihill's investigation was conducted satisfactorily," Mr McGimpsey said.

Mr Paul Mageean, of the human rights body, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, asked why Mr McGimpsey was now laying emphasis on the Mulvihill assessment of the inquiry. It was the ICPC who assessed, and had the statutory obligation to assess, the conduct of the inquiry, he said. Cmdr Mulvihill was not involved in the inquiry when the ICPC was supervising and developing concerns about the initial RUC inquiry.

Mr Mageean described the ICPC report as a "damning indictment of the RUC's ability to investigate" the murder. Mr Sean Neeson, the Alliance party leader, said he was deeply concerned at the ICPC report. He said the public at large was looking for urgent action to be taken on the report.

Ms Brid Rodgers, an SDLP Assembly member from Lurgan, said the report was "devastating", and illustrated that it would be "unthinkable" for the RUC to lead the murder investigation. "The case for a fully independent international inquiry was compelling. In the light of these findings it cannot now be denied," she said. "It is unthinkable, in these circumstances, that the RUC should take the lead in investigating her murder."

Dr Dara O'Hagan, Sinn Fein Assembly member for the Lurgan-Portadown area, said the only way the general community could have confidence in the murder investigation was to have the inquiry withdrawn from the RUC.

The Police Authority for Northern Ireland, which is to publish a policing plan today, said it was studying the ICPC report, and would be discussing its contents with Sir Ronnie Flanagan.