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Hamill Inquiry: RUC 'couldn’t check old files'

By Lesley-Anne Henry

The RUC had no way of checking cases for omissions in 1997, a former senior officer has told the Robert Hamill Inquiry.

Raymond White, an ex-Assistant Chief Constable who acted as an interface between the police and Director of Public Prosecutions, said, unlike now, there was no mechanism for reviewing criminal investigation files and that quality control officers like himself relied on the “integrity” of the investigators.

“One would have hoped that no nefarious activity would have taken place,” added the former ACC.

Father-of-three Robert died days after being beaten and jumped on by a loyalist mob in Portadown town centre on April 27, 1997.

A public inquiry has been set up to investigate the conduct of four police officers parked in a Land Rover close to the scene of the attack and the subsequent murder investigation. Yesterday’s sitting at the Interpoint Centre in Belfast heard how the criminal investigation file did not contain details of two contradictory statements relating to an alibi given by Robert Atkinson, an RUC officer alleged to have tipped off one of the murder suspects.

And the file gave no indication a search at the home of suspect Allister Hanvey in May 1997 was restricted to one room, retrieved only three items and failed to find any of the clothing he had been wearing on April 27, 1997.

Belfast Telegraph

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