Inquiry opens into loyalist mob killing
A public inquiry into the killing of a Catholic man by a loyalist mob eight years ago opened today.
Robert Hamill, 25, was set upon as he walked home from a night out in Portadown, Co Armagh, in April 1997 and died 11 days later in hospital.
Today, on the first day of the public probe into his death, chaired by Sir Edwin Jowitt, it was revealed that the inquiry panel has secretly scoured the town where loyalists struck.
Amid allegations that police just yards from the scene ignored the attack, the panel will also examine the RUC Land Rover used by the patrol under suspicion.
With up to 100 witnesses set to testify at the public inquiry, Sir Edwin said the hearing will try to establish if police could have done more to prevent the father-of-three’s death.
Evidence will be studied to assess whether any failure or omission on the part of officers to halt the attack, identify the killers or properly investigate the murder was deliberate or negligent, the retired High Court judge said.
He said: “We are very conscious of the many emotions to which the death of Robert Hamill has given rise and we repeat that our overriding concern in this inquiry will be to do all we can to ascertain where the truth lies concerning the issues raised by our terms of reference.”
The British government agreed to set up a probe into the April 1997 killing after the case was examined by former Canadian judge Peter Cory.
It was one of four murders in Northern Ireland where he found enough evidence of collusion to warrant a public tribunal.
The hearing into the car bomb attack on solicitor Rosemary Nelson opened last month.
An inquiry into the jailhouse assassination of loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright is also due to begin this year.
And the shooting of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane is to be examined as well.
Six men were accused of Mr Hamill’s murder, but charges were dropped against five of them. The sixth was acquitted of murder and sentenced to four years for affray.
At the time of the attack the town was gripped by sectarian tensions linked to the Drumcree marching dispute where the Orange Order were demanding to parade on the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
Sir Edwin disclosed that he and his colleagues, the Rev Baroness Richardson, a former moderator of the Free Churches Council of England and Wales, and Sir John Evans, an ex-chief constable of Devon and Cornwall, had carried out a scouting trip.
He told today’s hearing at Craigavon Courthouse in Co Armagh: “To prepare ourselves for the inquiry we visited Portadown on January 26 this year, when we walked around the streets forming the crossroads where, or near to which, Robert Hamill received his injuries.
“We looked particularly at sight lines from various points. We also drove out to the grounds of the rugby football club to see where they lie in relation to the town centre.
“We did not announce our visit because we wished to see the site without attracting attention or without distraction.”
Sir Edwin added that the tribunal was intent on studying the police vehicle located close to the attack.
“We shall also wish to see the Land Rover which was used on the night in question, or one similar, to see what could be seen from it in different locations and what could be heard inside it of what was going on outside,” he said.
“We are all comparative strangers to Northern Ireland and in particular to Portadown and its ethos.
“I had never visited Northern Ireland until after my appointment to this inquiry.”
Mr Hamill’s sister Diane led relatives into the court room for the opening of the hearing today.
Representatives of the Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ), and the British Irish Rights Watch were also present.
