Monday, 14 April, 2008

Public hearings to begin into car-bomb murder of solicitor

By The Irish News

British intelligence officers, police chiefs and top civil servants will be questioned at a public inquiry into the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, which opens in Belfast tomorrow. Nine years after the 40-year-old was killed in a loyalist car-bomb attack, the inquiry will begin its public hearings to determine if the authorities had a role in her murder.

Param Cumaraswamy, then a United Nations official, had warned of the dangers facing the mother-of-three before her death. Last night Mr Cumaraswamy described her as a fearless solicitor who had taken on controversial cases others were afraid to touch. “I welcome the inquiry. The perpetrators of that tragic brutal murder of Rosemary Nelson on March 15 1999 must be identified and brought to justice,” he said. “I trust that the process of this inquiry will leave no stones unturned to seek the truth.”

The inquiry will be led by Sir Michael Morland, a retired judge of the High Court of England and Wales. It can probe the conduct of MI5, the RUC, the British army and the Northern Ireland Office. Early estimates suggest its work could take at least two years as it attempts to unravel a case with a long and troubled history.

In 1998 Mr Cumaraswamy complained to the UN in Geneva and to the British government after meeting Mrs Nelson and hearing her claims of RUC harassment. Mrs Nelson made the same allegations at a special hearing in the US Congress in Washington. There were fears her case resembled that of solicitor Pat Finucane, shot dead by loyalists in 1989. Both lawyers had represented republican suspects and both said they later faced threats from the RUC and loyalist paramilitaries.

Mrs Nelson ran her own legal practice in Lurgan, Co Armagh. Most of her work involved routine legal business but she also accepted a number of controversial cases that put her under the spotlight. Mrs Nelson represented leading republican Colin Duffy and overturned his conviction for murdering a soldier after it had emerged a crucial police witness was a loyalist paramilitary. She also represented the family of Robert Hamill, a Catholic kicked to death by a loyalist mob while RUC officers were nearby. However, it was Mrs Nelson’s role as solicitor to the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition against Orange Order parades in Portadown that attracted the most attention. By the late 1990s the Drumcree parades dispute had escalated to become a focus for mass protest and murderous violence.

Mrs Nelson told relatives and friends she received a catalogue of threats but she found it difficult to believe she would be killed for doing her job. The public inquiry follows a 2004 report on her case by Canadian judge Peter Cory, which gave an insight into her experiences.

“Rosemary Nelson’s 10-year-old son took a call at home and when he gave the phone to his mother the caller said: ‘You’re dead. You’ll be shot’,” Judge Cory wrote. “She had been shopping in a local food market when she noticed that she was being followed around the store by a large man. At one point, when other shoppers were not in the vicinity, this man came up to her and told her that ‘if she didn’t stop representing IRA scum, she would be dead’.”

Eleven of Mrs Nelson’s clients said the RUC had threatened her, Judge Cory said. One officer is alleged to have said: “You’re going to die when you get out. And tell Rosemary she’s going to die.” The police have always denied the claims, which they argue have been investigated by the then RUC and the Metropolitan Police.

On the day she was killed, Mrs Nelson drove from her home at around 12.40pm. She braked at a junction opposite Tannaghmore Primary School, where her daughter was a pupil. Police later said a mercury tilt switch in the bomb under her car had detonated the device. An explosion ripped through her silver BMW. Friends and relatives ran to Mrs Nelson’s aid and one of her sisters held her hand as Mrs Nelson lay fatally wounded in the wreckage.

In the outrage sparked by her murder, the authorities resisted calls for the RUC to be frozen out of the subsequent investigation. Four years later the murder hunt – led by a senior officer from England and including RUC officers – ended without anyone being charged over the killing.

Around £15 million has been spent on the Nelson case so far. Leading police officers and a number of senior politicians have questioned the role of expensive public inquiries while other killings from the Troubles remain unsolved. Mr Cumaraswamy said yesterday no-one could put a price on justice.

“While I appreciate taxpayers’ apprehension of the high cost of such a public inquiry, such cost should not be a barrier for the pursuit of truth and justice, which are priceless human values,” he said. “Otherwise, impunity will flourish and erode the fabric of society. I have vivid memories of Rosemary, of my first meeting with her in Belfast and later in Washington. She was a courageous and committed lawyer who took on unpopular causes without any fear.”

Timeline

• 1996-97: Some of Rosemary Nelson’s clients said that while they were being questioned about alleged republican activities, RUC officers made threats against the solicitor. During this period Mrs Nelson gained prominence as the solicitor for leading republican Colin Duffy as well as the family of Robert Hamill – who was beaten to death by loyalists – and the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition in Portadown, Co Armagh
• 1998: In July the Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC), which monitored internal RUC inquiries, raised concerns over the RUC handling of the investigation into the alleged threats. The RUC team was withdrawn and replaced by Metropolitan Police investigators. In September Mrs Nelson told a hearing at the US Congress in Washington she was being intimidated by the RUC and by loyalist paramilitaries
• 1999: On March 15 Mrs Nelson was killed in a car bombing admitted by the loyalist Red Hand Defenders. Her earlier allegations of security force harassment sparked immediate calls for an inquiry. A leaked ICPC report piled pressure on the authorities by revealing it had found “ill-disguised hostility to Mrs Nelson” by some RUC officers. The Director of Public Prosecutions later said no RUC officers would face prosecution or disciplinary action over the alleged threats. Colin Port, the deputy chief constable of Norfolk, was brought in to lead the search for her killers. His investigation would last four years but fail to charge anyone in connection with her death
• 2001: Political parties from the north held talks at Weston Park to agree a blueprint for the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. They also agreed a review of controversial murders where there were allegations of security force involvement by British or Irish state forces
• 2003: Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory, recommended inquiries into the loyalist murders of Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill and solicitors Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane and the republican murders of loyalist leader Billy Wright and RUC detectives Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan
• 2004: Secretary of State Paul Murphy established the Rosemary Nelson inquiry. Its terms of reference initially covered only the RUC and the Northern Ireland Office but were later widened to examine any possible involvement by the British army or intelligence agencies. It was also to review the failed murder investigation
• 2007: A Police Ombudsman’s report found the RUC had failed to properly investigate loyalist death threats against Mrs Nelson months before her death

• 2008, April 15: Public hearings of the Rosemary Nelson inquiry to begin

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