The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has ruled that allegations of security force collusion in the loyalist murders of eight men in south Armagh in the 1970s were not properly investigated
The case was taken by the families of the eight men following what they considered to be a failure by the British government to properly have investigated detailed allegations of collusion made by a former member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1999.
The court ruled unanimously that in all the cases there had been a violation of article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights due to the lack of independence of the RUC which handled the initial stages of the investigation into the allegations.
The collusion claim was made by former RUC man John Weir in a 1999 television programme.
He said he had been told by another former RUC reserve constable that a farmhouse owned by another officer was used as a base from which to carry out loyalist attacks. Weir also alleged that a part-time member of the Ulster Defence Regiment was among those responsible for one of the attacks and that a getaway car was provided by another former police reservist.
The case related to the deaths of eight men from four families and the wounding of a ninth, Colm McCartney, who was murdered at Altnamackin in August 1975.
Trevor Brecknell was murdered at Donnelly's Bar in Silverbridge in December 1975; brothers John, Brian and Anthony Reavey were murdered at Whitecross in January 1976; Joseph, Barry and Declan O'Dowd were murdered on the same evening as the Reavey brothers and Michael McGrath was wounded in a gun attack on the Rock Bar in Keady in June 1976.
The court said an investigation into the allegations appeared to have been started by the RUC in 1999. Interviews with seven people central to Weir's allegations - of those who could be traced or were still alive - were conducted in 2001, without obtaining any useful new or incriminating evidence.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland took over from the RUC in November 2001 and the investigation was eventually handed over to the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) of the Metropolitan Police. That team managed to interview Weir, said the court, but he refused to either make a statement or to agree to give evidence in a British court.
It said the HET had now apparently reached the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to proceed further, although it did not appear that any formal decision had yet been issued.
The court awarded all applicants €5,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €5,000 in respect of costs and expenses - with the exception of the Brecknell family where the award was €51,000.
Sinn Féin MP for the area Conor Murphy said: "This unanimous ruling today highlights the lack of independence within the Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation into the allegations of collusion . . . The families of all those killed down the years, not just in south Armagh but all of the victims of British state collusion, deserve the truth about their loved ones."
- (PA)