The Ombudsman has now confirmed it has reopened new lines of inquiry into the attack on Sean Graham’s bookies in the Lower Ormeau in 1992, as well as other loyalist killings in the north-west between 1988-94 and the murder of Damien Walsh at a West Belfast coal depot in 1993, after investigators identified information held by police was not made available to staff investigating the massacre, in which five people were killed.
“This undoubtedly raises serious issues and has the potential to undermine confidence in the police and criminal justice system. That has to be acknowledged and addressed by the police and other agencies in the process,” said Dr Farry.
“The Policing Board needs convened immediately to look at this matter and determine what exactly has occurred in the cases the Ombudsman identified, whether it an isolated human error, problems with the records and IT systems or something else. We also need to know whether this is isolated to the cases identified by the Ombudsman or if other cases may have been similarly affected.
“The Department of Justice also needs to look at this to establish how much a lack of resources and effective technology and systems contributed to this failure to make all the relevant information available to the Ombudsman.