The widow of Pat Finucane, the Belfast-based lawyer shot dead in one of the most controversial killings of the Troubles has met Britain 's top police officer to urge him to end his inquiry into her husband's death.
Ms Geraldine Finucane
In their first face-to-face meeting, Mr Finucane's relatives told London police chief Sir John Stevens that his long-running investigation should be wound up in favour of a public inquiry into allegations security forces colluded with the killers.
"We did not meet with him to offer our co-operation, we met with him to ask him to wind up his investigation and hand over his files to the public inquiry that the British government is now obliged to establish," Ms Geraldine Finucane told reporters.
"My family has never set the prosecution of individuals as its highest priority. We have believed for many years that the murder of Pat Finucane was the product of a state policy of collusion."
Mr Finucane, a high-profile lawyer who had defended a number of IRA suspects, was shot dead by the UDA as he ate a meal with his wife and children at their north Belfast home in 1989.
The case has been dogged by allegations that security forces helped loyalists to carry out the attack on Mr Finucane, and last year a report from Sir John Stevens concluded the authorities could have prevented the killing.
Last May a former UDA man from north Belfast, Ken Barrett, was arrested by Stevens's team in southern England and charged with Mr Finucane's murder. His trial is expected to begin in Northern Ireland later this year.
"We have discussed whether she [Geraldine Finucane] would come and assist the inquiry, that's my inquiry into criminal offences," Sir John Stevens said following the meeting.
"I don't think she's in a position to do that at the moment. Mrs Finucane and the family's position is for a public inquiry."
In October last year a retired Canadian Supreme Court judge, Peter Cory, handed reports on four controversial killings - Mr Finucane's among them - involving allegations of security force collusion to the British government.
Britain has so far refused to publish the reports, arguing more time is needed to study the legal and security implications, but Mr Cory has informed the victims' families he has recommended public inquiries in each case.