Pressure is growing for an independent public inquiry into the death of Mr Robert Hamill after the decision by the coroner for Greater Belfast not to hold an inquest. In a statement released yesterday, the Court Service said the decision was made because of the coroner's concerns for the safety of "certain witnesses".
The family of Mr Hamill, a Co Armagh man, is expected to meet the Taoiseach at Government Buildings today, where they will press him to support calls for an independent inquiry into the killing. The 25-year-old father of two died in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast on May 8th, 1997, of severe head injuries sustained in an assault by a loyalist mob in Portadown in the early hours of Sunday, April 27th, 1997.
RUC officers who attended the scene in an armoured Land Rover were accused of not intervening in the incident. However, a decision not to prosecute was later taken by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
A Government spokesman said: "The Irish Government has expressed its concern on a number of occasions about the Hamill case and, in that context, some time ago the Taoiseach arranged to meet with the family."
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, was "concerned at the news that an inquest will not be held".
A Court Service statement said the coroner, Dr John Leckey, felt that if an inquest were to be held without the evidence of certain witnesses, believed to be civilian, whose "lives would be placed in danger", then "a seriously incomplete account of the circumstances of Mr Hamill's death would be given, which would not add materially to the evidence already in the public domain following the trial of Paul Rodney Marc Hobson".
On March 25th, 1999, at Belfast Crown Court, Hobson was convicted of causing an affray. He had also been charged with the murder of Mr Hamill but acquitted. Charges against five others were also dropped because of a lack of evidence.