Goalposts moved on Hamill murder inquiry
Daily Ireland30 March 2006
Human-rights campaigners yesterday hit out at a British government decision to make changes to a public probe into the murder of Catholic man Robert Hamill. Secretary of state Peter Hain announced he was converting the tribunal so it would be held under the Inquiries Act. He said the move was to ensure a full and effective investigation. Supporters of the Hamill family said this could lead to greater interference by the authorities.
A loyalist mob beat 25-year-old Robert Hamill to death in Portadown, Co Armagh, in April 1997. Royal Ulster Constabulary officers were stationed at the scene but failed to intervene. The killing was one of four controversial murders in the North for which the retired Canadian judge Peter Cory recommended inquiries. The others were the deaths of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, the loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright, and the Lurgan lawyer Rosemary Nelson.
With the Finucane family bitterly opposed to the Inquiries Act and Billy Wright's father David locked in a legal battle against using the same terms, Jane Winter of British-Irish Rights Watch attacked the latest development.
"It's not a good act. It takes power away from the judge and gives it to the secretary of state. The scope for interference is smaller in the Hamill case than it is with the Wright case but we can't be sure there won't be any interference with Hamill as well. We know there was a cover-up in the Hamill case and, when there's a cover-up, you never know how much of it has come to light,"
she said.
Ms Winter said the British government was trying to pressurise the Finucanes into accepting the Inquiries Act by changing both the Wright and Hamill probes so they are conducted under the act.
"They can then say there can't be that much wrong with the act,"
she said.
More than 100 witnesses are expected to give evidence to the Hamill hearing, chaired by former High Court judge Sir Edwin Jowitt. The hearing held an opening session last May but is believed to have faced difficulties in getting full co-operation . However Peter Hain defended the decision to make changes to the inquiry and insisted that the inquiry could establish the full facts around Robert Hamill's murder.
"My concern throughout has been to ensure that the Robert Hamill inquiry should be able to carry out its work both as fully and as effectively as possible,"
Mr Hain said.
"It remains the strong wish of both the government and the Hamill inquiry that the full facts in relation to the death of Robert Hamill should be established, and I am confident that the Inquiries Act will provide an effective framework for achieving this."