Sean Browne - High Court rules London must set up a public inquiry

Alan Erwin, Irish News, December 18th, 2024

SECRETARY of State Hilary Benn must set up a public inquiry into the murder of GAA official Sean Brown, a High Court judge ordered yesterday.

Mr Justice Humpreys compelled the step to be taken after finding the British government remains in breach of a human rights duty to probe the full extent of state collusion in the May 1997 killing.

Granting a judicial review challenge by the victim’s 87-year-old widow Bridie, he held there is a “clear and unambiguous obligation” to establish a statutory probe.

“No viable alternative to a public inquiry has been advanced,” the judge confirmed.

“In these circumstances, there can be only one lawful answer, a public inquiry must be convened to satisfy the state’s Article 2 obligation.”

No-one has ever been convicted of his murder.

Earlier this year it emerged at an inquest that state agents were among more than 25 people linked by intelligence to the killing.

At that stage the coroner, Mr Justice Kinney, halted proceedings due to the extent of confidential material excluded or withheld on national security grounds.

He wrote to the previous Conservative government requesting the establishment of a public inquiry.

In September Mr Benn confirmed that those calls had been rejected.

He instead recommended that the bereaved family should engage with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), a new body set up under the controversial Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Act.

The Court of Appeal has already ruled that parts of the legislation breaches human rights law, with the government having too much power to prohibit the commission from sharing sensitive information.

Even though the Labour government has pledged to repeal the act, it intends to retain the ICRIR.

According to Mrs Brown, the decision to deny her a public inquiry into her husband’s murder breached Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Her lawyers argued that it is the only plausible way to expose the full truth of state involvement and the level of protection given to Barrister Desmond Fahy KC accepted that the chances of anyone ever being convicted for the killing are “vanishingly small”.

But even though they may have escaped accountability, he insisted the reasons must still be examined.

The widow and members of her family were accompanied by supporters, political representatives and GAA President Jarlath Burns for their legal challenge.

In an affidavit read out in court, Mrs Brown described going to the Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA club grounds with a torchlight to search in vain for her husband on the night he failed to return home.

She also recalled police officers attending the family’s house hours later, and her shock when one of them asked why her daughter was crying.

It was claimed that her experiences on the morning after her husband’s murder were emblematic of the lack of compassion and general disregard shown to her and the Brown family by state bodies in the intervening 27 years.

The court heard revelations that state agents were connected to the killing came as a “shock of seismic proportions” to the family.

A NIO paper to the secretary of state which suggested a further police investigation would be inadequate to meet the Article 2 obligations was also cited during proceedings.

The judge was told how a number of reports have already been heavily critical of the RUC’s probe into the murder.

Former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan found a number of failings and inadequate efforts made to identify those responsible.

In 2022, the PSNI issued a public apology to Mrs Brown for deficiencies in the original probe as part of a settlement reached in a separate civil action over claims that the terrorists who carried out the assassination were protected.

Former police ombudsman says intelligence on GAA official’s murder should have been shared

Connla Young, Irish News, December 18th, 2024

FORMER Police Ombudsman Baroness Nuala O’Loan has said all intelligence relating to the murder of GAA official Sean Brown should have been shared with her.

Ms O’Loan was speaking after a High Court judge ruled that Secretary of State Hilary Benn must set up a public inquiry into the Co Derry man’s murder.

The father-of-six was attacked and beaten by a LVF gang as he locked the gates at Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAC in May 1997.

The 61-year-old was later placed in the boot of his own car and taken to a country lane outside Randalstown, Co Antrim, where he was shot six times.

Mr Brown’s murder was investigated by Ms O’Loan’s office in 2004 and concluded that the RUC investigation was “incomplete and inadequate”.

It has since emerged that vital information linked to the case was not provided to Ms O’Loan.

“It will be vital now that the inquiry has proper terms of reference enabling it to deal with all the issues before the murder, at the time of the murder and thereafter,” she said.

“In 2004 I was only able to conclude on the evidence which was made available to me that the investigation was not efficiently and properly carried out and no earnest effort made to identify those who carried out the murder.” Ms O’Loan spoke of how material linked to the case went missing.

“The Murder Investigation Policy File, critical to determine how and why the enquiry was conducted was in existence when the Brown family had complained to me but went missing when the investigation started,” she said.

“This seriously impeded my investigation.

“The ‘Occurrence Book’ for Bellaghy RUC Station, which recorded what happened on the night of the murder, was also missing.”

Ms O’Loan added that all the information available on the murder of Mr Brown should have been handed over to her.

“All the intelligence relating to the murder should have been shared with me, but I now know that that did not happen,” she said.

“It is appalling that the Brown family have had to wait so long and fight so hard for this inquiry.”

Comment

I fully support an inquiry for the Brown family. It’s absolutely pathetic that the family had to go down this road. The blame lies firmly with the politicians and security agencies.

Once again a judge sees that ICRIR is not the way forward for families seeking truth and justice.

For far too long we have had politicians with a tribal approach to victims and their families, division suited them. However, now with unity among victims and the rejection of sectarianism in seeking justice families have a greater chance of achieving it.

It’s down to our judges to make the right decisions and use their powers to stand up to denial and delay.

What can be more rewarding for a judge is to endorse a process that is lawful and ends denial and delay, with a victims’ friendly approach to justice rather than a denial of human rights or legislation that is incompatible with human rights and is rejected by victims and their families.

I congratulate the Brown family on their long campaign that is now seeing results and I thank and welcome the judge's decision on a public inquiry.

Raymond McCord