Northern Ireland

Relative of Shankill bomb victims fails in court challenge to 'On The Run' scheme

Ten people were killed in the Shankill bomb atrocity in October 1993
Ten people were killed in the Shankill bomb atrocity in October 1993 Ten people were killed in the Shankill bomb atrocity in October 1993

A PENSIONER who lost three members of her family in the IRA's Shankill Road bomb atrocity has failed in a High Court challenge to the issuing of 'comfort letters' to so-called On The Runs.

Elizabeth Morrison's legal action against the Secretary of State and PSNI was dismissed because the British government was held to have publicly confirmed the controversial scheme is now abolished.

Mr Justice Maguire said: "The challenge has been rendered academic."

Mrs Morrison's son Michael, his partner Evelyn Baird and their seven-year-old daughter Michelle were among 10 people killed in the October 1993 attack in west Belfast.

The 81-year-old issued proceedings following a press report that one of the bomb suspects who fled across the border was among nearly 200 republicans in receipt of a secret letter stating he was not wanted by police.

The On The Runs scheme provoked outrage after Co Donegal man John Downey's trial on charges linked to the 1982 London Hyde Park bombing collapsed in February 2014.

He had been mistakenly sent a government letter saying he was not wanted for questioning by police.

The full scale of the administrative scheme involving other republican paramilitary suspects then emerged.

Police were said to believe 95 of those people who received letters could be linked to nearly 300 murders.

Mrs Morrison's case had been put on hold pending the outcome of separate judicial and parliamentary inquiries into the controversial process.

An independent review carried out by Lady Justice Hallett found significant systemic failures but concluded that the letters were not an amnesty and the scheme was lawful.

The Westminster Northern Ireland Affairs committee separately concluded that it had damaged the integrity of the criminal justice system.

In an attempt to judicially review the scheme, counsel for Mrs Morrison argued that a secretive process linked to nearly 300 murders was unlawful and represented a wilful abandonment of evidence-gathering opportunities.

He rejected former Secretary of State Theresa Villiers's statement to the House of Commons in September 2014, where she warned paramilitary suspects who received the letters not to rely on them as an amnesty from prosecution.

But counsel for the Secretary of State and PSNI argued that there was no proper basis for continuing the challenge.

He confirmed comfort letters were not sent to any of six suspects identified in connection with the Shankill Road attack - convicted bomber Sean Kelly and five others who remained unnamed.

Ruling on the case yesterday, Mr Justice Maguire said one reason behind the statement to the Commons was to give "fair and clear warning" that any assurances recipients derived from the letters no longer applied.

He added: "The effect of this statement is to abolish the scheme under which the OTR letters of comfort issued and to give notice that those letters which had already been issued can no longer be treated, in the government's view, as documents which can be relied upon to give comfort to their recipients."