RUC commanders could have prevented officer's murder, report finds
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Version 0 of 1. On the chief constable of Northern Ireland's last day in office, a damning new report has found that his predecessors in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) could have prevented the murder of one of their own officers during the Troubles. As Matt Baggott called for his Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) not to be held accountable for past Troubles crimes, the region's police ombudsman published findings that concluded senior police commanders failed to act on intelligence they had on a death threat to an RUC sergeant 37 years ago. In his 50-page report into the murder in 1977 of Sgt Joseph Campbell outside a closed police station in the North Antrim seaside village of Cushendall, Dr Paul Maguire said: "Senior RUC officers and management had information on a very specific threat and failed to respond." Maguire said it was highly likely that the intelligence threat against Campbell was known all the way up to the then chief constable, Sir Kenneth Newman. Newman told the police ombudsman during the investigation into the historic murder that he could not remember. Although Maguire ruled out direct collusion between the RUC and Campbell's killers, he said: "There was no corrective action taken by the RUC to warn Joe Campbell, increase patrols or move him from his position, none of that happened. There was a prolonged failure in duty to the Campbell family." The ombudsman added: "The impact of the murder of Joe Campbell reverberated throughout RUC at the time, I was surprised the chief constable did not recollect it. There is no doubt in my mind that the Campbell family were failed by the RUC." Maguire also concluded that the two criminal investigations into the shooting had been flawed. The investigations were hampered by the withholding of sensitive intelligence information, including the threats to the victim's life, he said. The Campbell family has welcomed elements of the ombudsman's report, but said they were unhappy that Maguire's investigation did not find evidence of RUC collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. Campbell had been a well-known and respected police officer in the County Antrim community for many years. The shooting took place on the evening of 25 February 1977 and since then his widow and children have campaigned for more information about the circumstances surrounding his death. The Campbells have always believed their father was murdered by one of the most notorious loyalist paramilitary killers of the Troubles – Robin "The Jackal" Jackson. Jackson was an assassin for the Ulster Volunteer Force, whose targets were mainly Catholics living in the so-called murder triangle of North Armagh and Tyrone. Since Campbell's murder there have been allegations that the police officer was shot dead because he discovered links between Jackson and a rogue member of RUC special branch who was organising criminal activities including armed robberies in County Antrim. The police ombudsman is currently involved in a legal battle with the PSNI over its refusal to allow him access to sensitive historic files on unsolved Troubles crimes. In an interview to mark his last day in office, Matt Baggott said there was a need in terms of policing "to separate the past from the present". He said: "I think however that is done, the PSNI should no longer be accountable for dealing with issues that pre-date the Good Friday Agreement. "We have to create a situation where police resources are focused on the here and now, without taking away from the needs of justice or victims. But that can be done in a different place, under a different authority." Last December, Northern Ireland's chief law officer, Attorney General John Larkin QC, said there should be no more police investigations, inquiries or even inquests into killings related to the conflict prior to the 1998 peace deal – an effective amnesty for all Troubles crimes. |