THE NORTH’S Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson has found the RUC’s predisposition towards believing the Provisional IRA bombed McGurk’s bar in 1971 became an “investigative bias”.
This bias prevented an effective investigation by police of the loyalist bombing that killed 15 people and injured more than 16 but fell short of actual collusion, the ombudsman said in Belfast yesterday. PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott did not endorse the ombudsman’s bias allegation.
The authorities’ suggestion at the time was that the bombing was a so-called IRA “own goal” – a bomb exploding prematurely – conveying the impression that some of those killed or injured were culpable, which caused great distress to the bereaved and injured.
Mr Hutchinson in his 80-page report found no evidence that the RUC assisted the UVF team responsible for the bombing.
Last July some of those bereaved and injured in the bombing compelled Mr Hutchinson to withdraw his original report because it contained several flaws – he did not deal with the issue of RUC bias; it had the wrong date of the bombing; and some of the victims were misnamed. He said yesterday he would not resign over this.
Mr Hutchinson in his second revised report said that in 1971 police gave selective briefings to the British government and to the media that republican paramilitaries were responsible.
The bomb at McGurk’s Bar in Great George’s Street, Belfast, exploded on the evening of Saturday, December 4th, 1971. The UVF gang responsible had intended to bomb a nearby bar, the Gem, on the assumption that IRA members would be in it but picked McGurk’s because they could not access the Gem.
Among the fatalities were Philomena McGurk, wife of the owner Patrick, and their 14-year-old daughter Maria. Mrs McGurk’s brother, John Colton, and a 13-year-old schoolboy, James Cromie, also died in the attack. After the attack Mr McGurk, who died in December 2007, said he forgave the bombers.
British army and police sources blamed the IRA while the then unionist security minister John Taylor (now Lord Kilclooney) said the forensic evidence supported the theory that the explosion “took place inside the building”.
Mr Hutchinson concluded that the RUC investigation was not proportionate to the “magnitude” of the incident. “The police investigation had a clear predisposition to the erroneous ‘own goal’ theory. This was perhaps in some way understandable given the extent of IRA bombings and attacks at the time,” he said.
“However, the investigative bias leading to a failure to examine properly evidence and intelligence attributing the bombing to loyalist paramilitaries undermined both the investigation and any confidence the bereaved families had in obtaining justice,” added Mr Hutchinson.
It was not until five years after the bombing that the RUC officially discovered through intelligence that loyalists were responsible.
In 1978 a loyalist, Robert Campbell, was convicted of the bombing. It is understood that he is still alive and living in Britain. Four other loyalists were suspected of involvement. Only one of them was questioned by police, and not necessarily about the bombing.
Mr Hutchinson concluded the RUC had failed to conduct an “effective investigation of the information, which it had received in 1976, that the convicted man and other members of the UVF had been responsible for the bombing. The inference that victims of the bombings were culpable in the atrocity has caused the bereaved families great distress over the years. A correction by the chief constable of this erroneous reporting would be a significant step,” said Mr Hutchinson.
Mr Baggott said it was the “unequivocal belief” of the PSNI that none of the victims was culpable. But he implicitly rejected the claim of bias. “Other reports have reached differing judgments regarding the initial RUC investigation. None of them have concluded that there was evidence of investigatory bias,” he said.
