Three atrocities which should shame British government

On Thursday, the Police Ombudsman found a catalogue of investigative failures and “collusive behaviours” by the RUC relating to the UDA murder of west Belfast teenager Damien Walsh.

On Wednesday, Arlene Arkinson’s sister Kathleen called for a public inquiry after an inquest found that convicted child killer and rapist Robert Howard, widely believed to be a state agent, murdered the Castlederg teenager.

These are not cases from the start of the Troubles when, for various reasons, the police may have been prone to making mistakes.

The hot and heavy pace of violence in the early to mid-70s put the security forces under immense pressure. In 1972, almost 500 people were killed and 5,000 injured.

While it’s of little comfort to their families, investigations into each and every death may not have been what these victims deserved.

But none of those excuses hold in connection with Omagh or the Arkinson and Walsh murders. The Real IRA bomb that blew 29 people to bits occurred in 1998; the teenagers were killed in 1994.  

The Arkinson family’s solicitor Des O’Doherty has described the original RUC case into Arlene’s disappearance as “shambolic and uncaring”.

Coroner Brian Sherrard said that knowledge of Howard’s criminal past meant that police should have arrested him in the days following the 15-year-old’s disappearance after a night out at a disco in Bundoran.

The year before he killed Arlene, Howard had, over three days, repeatedly raped “in every way” 16-year-old Priscilla Gahan. He had held her hostage in his flat on Main Street in Castlederg and tightened a rope around her neck when she tried to stop him.

Eventually, she was able to throw herself from a window to escape. She ran to the local police station around the corner.

There was strong evidence to support her account: strangulation marks on her neck; her fingerprints on the windowsill from which she had jumped; and a rope.

Howard was originally charged with five rapes and buggery, but the charges were dropped. He agreed to plead guilty to the much lesser offence of unlawful carnal knowledge, and received a suspended sentence.

Kathleen Arkinson has made a powerful appeal to Justice Minister Naomi Long to examine her sister’s case very carefully.

“When she does, she will see that the need for a public inquiry into the activities of Robert Howard in this jurisdiction, and his status as an agent for the RUC which has led to death and misery for many people, will be unavoidable,” Kathleen said.

In 2001, Howard raped and strangled 14-year-old London schoolgirl Hannah Williams.

The blue rope he’d used was wrapped around her neck when her badly decomposed body was found the following year.

Howard was convicted of her murder in 2003. The investigating officer, former Detective Chief Inspector Colin Murray of Kent Police, alleged in 2015 to BBC’s Spotlight programme that his investigation was obstructed by the PSNI who had tried to block his plan to meet the Arkinsons.

Just like the Arkinsons, the family of 17-year-old Damien Walsh has fought for justice for 27 years.

He was shot six times in the back by a UDA gunman as he worked on a Youth Training Programme at the back of the Dairy Farm shopping centre.

There has been a massive stink around the Omagh bomb for many years.

On the 10th anniversary of the explosion, Michael Gallagher — whose 21-year-old son Aiden was killed — told me: “I believe someone in the intelligence services took a decision not to intercept the bomb, that they decided to play Russian roulette with our loved ones’ lives.”

In 1998, political leaders queued up to denounce the bombers and offer support to the bereaved.

If there’s an iota of integrity among those who hold high office in London and Dublin, a cross-border public inquiry must now be held.