The life of the murdered solicitor, Mrs Rosemary Nelson, could have been saved if police had acted more quickly to investigate death threats against her, Belfast High Court heard yesterday.
Six months before loyalists bombed the Catholic solicitor's car outside her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh, she was warned of a plot to kill her. One letter sent to her declared: "We have you in our sights you republican bastard, we will teach you a lesson RIP."
As human rights campaigners began a case to gain access to police investigation files, their legal team claimed the delay in examining the threats might have been fatal.
Mr Seamus Treacy QC said: "We submit the possibility that if these investigative steps had been carried out at the appropriate time Mrs Nelson might have been saved."
The Belfast-based Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) sent the death-threat letter to the former security minister, Mr Adam Ingram, in August 1998, the court was told. Within weeks the group was informed that the Northern Ireland Office had passed the documents on to the former chief constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
Mrs Nelson was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in March 1999. The Red Hand Defenders, a cover name used by the Loyalist Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association, claimed they planted the booby-trapped device under her car.
Mrs Nelson had angered militant Protestants by successfully representing senior republicans including a man accused of murdering a soldier. The solicitor had also alleged she had been threatened by RUC officers.
A week after the bombing, detectives came to the CAJ's offices and asked for original copies of the death-threat letter and another sinister note which referred to Mrs Nelson, the court was told. Mr Treacy claimed police should have requested the documents for forensic tests that could have led them to the killers when they were first alerted six months earlier.
"This was basic investigative work, but the RUC in this case didn't come looking for the originals until after she was murdered," he insisted. "It's not as if there could have been any doubt about the significance of the documents."
Even though security chiefs have insisted they had no intelligence to suggest loyalists were targeting Mrs Nelson, the CAJ has demanded access to papers on the case.
After being refused access representatives lodged a complaint with the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, but Mr Treacy said she had also turned down requests for documents.
Mr Justice Kerr, who is hearing the judicial review, was expected to reserve judgment. - (PA)