The North's Police Ombudsman, Ms Nuala O'Loan, is understood to have completed a draft report highly critical of the RUC's handling of the Omagh bomb atrocity in which 29 people died.
The 150-page report is believed to raise the issue of a possible conflict of interest between the RUC's desire to protect its intelligence sources and the pursuit of the "Real IRA" suspects responsible for the bombing. Nobody from the Ombudsman's office could be contacted for comment yesterday.
Meanwhile, families of victims of the bombing yesterday confronted protesters from the "Real IRA" political wing who were demonstrating over prisoners' rights. Relatives held pictures of those murdered as they faced members of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in a stand-off outside the Irish Embassy in London. Mr Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aidan was among those killed, said it was time the group faced up to what they were supporting. "For 30 years terrorists have not been challenged by families of the victims and they don't like it now that it's finally happening."