A MAN whose parents were murdered in the McGurk’s Bar Massacre when he was a child has called on Chief Constable Simon Byrne to quash a 'failed' and 'irrational' report into the atrocity before a final court appearance next month.
Gerard Keenan was just 12-years-old when his mother and father, Sarah and Edward, were murdered in the atrocity on December 4,1971. In total, 15 Catholic civilians died in the attack, including two children. The atrocity remains the greatest loss of civilian life in any murderous attack in Belfast since the Blitz of the city in 1941.
Last week at the High Court after a seven-year-long legal battle, the families learned that the PSNI has finally conceded that the PSNI/Historical Enquiries Team’s finding of no bias in the original Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) investigation is “irrational” and therefore unlawful.
The families have contended this throughout the case and demanded that the failed HET report is quashed whilst PSNI still contends that police deletions in the report would suffice.
Presiding judge at the High Court, Mr Justice Humphreys, made it clear at the hearing that the full version of the current HET report cannot remain but adjourned until June 16 to give both legal teams time to agree a settlement. The families are resolute that the report should be quashed immediately.
Speaking to the North Belfast News, Gerard Keenan said: "The PSNI forced our families to fight in court for two years to access this failed report even though we knew it would be a whitewash.
"The PSNI then forced our families to fight in court for another seven years to get this failed report quashed before finally conceding this week that its findings were irrational.
"We have lost many of our family members over those nine years, so they have gone to their graves without truth or justice from the police.
“I call on Chief Constable Simon Byrne to do the right thing finally – quash this failed, irrational report and do not force our families back into court as it does nothing but retraumatize us.
“We have succeeded, and we will not take anything less than the quashing of this failed HET report. It remains a stain on the historical record and is nothing but a monument to police failure and its ongoing cover-up of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre.”
Paul Pierce of KRW Law, who represents the applicant, Brigid Irvine added: “It is now beyond doubt that the HET report into the McGurks Bar bombing can no longer stand as a 'final and comprehensive review' of the atrocity. This is what the families expected, and it is what they were promised.
“These Judicial Review proceedings were lodged in September 2014. It is only this week, and in advance of the hearing, that the Chief Constable conceded that the HET’s finding of no investigative bias was irrational – and therefore unlawful.”
