There were “significant failings” in a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) investigation into the sectarian murder of a Catholic teenager in Belfast over 20 years ago, an Ombudsman report has found.
However, there is no evidence that police could have prevented the killing of Gerard Lawlor (19) or evidence of “collusive behaviours”, according to Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson.
Mr Lawlor, who had an 18-month-old child with his partner, was shot dead as he walked along the Floral Road after a night out in the Bellevue Arms pub in north Belfast, shortly after midnight on July 22nd, 2002.
A member of St Enda’s GAC in Glengormley, he was the fifth person in the club to be murdered during the Troubles.
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Earlier that evening, there had been five gun attacks in north Belfast. The first was on a Protestant man, who was seriously injured but survived. The next four people targeted were Catholics, leading police to believe that the shootings were in retaliation for the first attack, according to the watchdog report.
Mr Lawlor was the only fatality that evening. Loyalist paramilitaries claimed responsibility for the killing but nobody has ever been charged.
At his funeral, then bishop of Down and Connor Dr Patrick Walsh told mourners of the “manifest raw sectarian hatred” in north Belfast which had left “a totally innocent young man” dead.
In 2004, the Lawlor family made a complaint to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland raising concerns about the preventability of the murder, protection of loyalist informants, allegations of collusion and serious deficiencies in the PSNI investigation.
It was one of the first sectarian murders to be investigated by the newly formed PSNI which had replaced the Royal Ulster Constabulary the previous year.
Delivering her findings on Wednesday, Ms Anderson said that while sectarian tensions were “high” in north Belfast on the night of 21st to 22nd July, 2002, and police resources were “undoubtedly stretched”, police and military checkpoints as well as patrols had remained in place.
“My investigation found no evidence that police had prior information that Gerard Lawlor was going to be targeted, or that loyalist paramilitaries were planning an attack in the Floral Road area and I do not believe that an opportunity existed for police to prevent the murder,” she said.
“Initial police actions following the murder were conducted in a thorough and competent manner. Scenes were secured and forensically examined and police conducted extensive witness and CCTV inquiries in the vicinity of the murder scene, in addition to the route that Mr Lawlor took upon leaving the Bellevue Arms, and potential routes taken by the murderers before, and after, the attack.”
However, Ms Anderson confirmed her investigation “did find evidence of significant failings in aspects of the police investigation”.
“Therefore, I have concluded that a number of the complaints, allegations and concerns made by the family about police actions and omissions are legitimate and justified”.
Among the litany of PSNI failings detailed in the report was the force’s failure to carry out searches, arrests and interviews in a “timely manner”, resulting in the possible loss of “potential forensic and other evidence”.
Police also failed to obtain all relevant telecommunication data and CCTV viewing logs.
There is criticism of how the PSNI failed to link Mr Lawlor’s murder to a series of sectarian attacks after the Ombudsman’s investigation discovered that police were in possession of intelligence identifying two people who may have played a role in sanctioning the attacks.
“There is no evidence that inquiries were conducted in respect of those individuals in the murder investigation,” the report states.
The watchdog report also focuses on the arrests of two individuals more than a year after Mr Lawlor’s murder, who were subsequently released without charge.
Although Ms Anderson acknowledges that there are valid reasons as to why investigators might delay making arrests, she states that the decision “significantly undermined” evidential opportunities.
She also criticised the “flawed” approach of the PSNI when it came to developing a “targeted covert/sensitive strategy with defined objectives for the purposes of the murder investigation”.
Addressing the family’s concerns about collusion and protection of informants, Ms Anderson said she found no evidence that Mr Lawlor’s murder was “reasonably foreseeable and therefore preventable”.
“I also concluded that there is no evidence that the PSNI or any of its officers sought to protect any informant,” she added.
“I have therefore concluded that there is nothing uncovered by this investigation that would support conclusions that there was ‘collusion’ or collusive behaviour on the part of any police officer”.
The Ombudsman expressed her gratitude to Mr Lawlor’s family for their co-operation and patience in awaiting the outcome of her report.
Reacting to the report, the Lawlor family said the findings show the PSNI “abjectly failed to conduct an appropriate investigation into Gerard’s murder”.
In a statement released through their solicitor, Niall Murphy, they added: “The pathetic excuse for an investigation confirms that the PSNI were institutionally indifferent as to whether or not any person would be charged and convicted. The facts in today’s report sustain that assertion.
“The family conclude from the same evidential basis as laid out in today’s report that these failings are in fact a dictionary definition of collusive behaviours, mindful of the fact that there are still investigative opportunities open to police.”
Mr Murphy said the Lawlor family now looked forward to an inquest into the murder, adding it would not be inhibited by the UK government’s controversial legacy bill which will bring an end to Troubles-related inquests.
The PSNI say they will “carefully consider” the report.
Det Chief Supt Ian Saunders said he recognised the “continued pain” felt by Mr Lawlor’s family.
“Their suffering does not fade and my thoughts are with them today,” he said.
