THE BROTHER of a West Belfast man whose inquest was dramatically halted after an intervention by the Secretary of State and Chief Constable is asking, “What are they hiding?”

Eugene Thompson, whose brother Paul 'Topper' Thompson (25), was murdered by the UDA on  April 27, 1994, in Springfield Park, was speaking after attending a Judicial Review hearing on Wednesday after the PSNI and Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris halted the inquest by trying to have information concerning the case from being made public by the Coroner.

Eugene said: “If the Secretary of State is involved then there’s something that they’re withholding which they do not want to come out.

“If it was just a case of it being the PSNI or the RUC they wouldn’t involve the British government. If it’s going as high up as the Secretary of State it means there is something they don’t want to come out.

“We were in court this morning for a short hearing to challenge the PII (Public Interest Immunity) taken by the PSNI and Secretary of State. Today was just a short hearing and it’s been listed for next Friday again.”

Eugene said the Coroner had been due to release a summary of information in  files which pertain to Paul's killing.

“The Coroner has read several pieces of information in the files and wants to make a summary or a gist of what is in the files, to make them available to us and the public,”  he said. “They are now trying to stop the Coroner from doing that but the Coroner is stating it is relevant to the case and feels very strongly about it.

“The Coroner has now challenged the PSNI and Secretary of State. They are saying under the Official Secrets Act the information can’t be disclosed but the Coroner is arguing for a gist of what has been read as the Coroner feels it’s relevant but we haven’t been made privy to it.”

Eugene said he believes the State is deliberately trying to “run down the clock” so the inquest will be dropped when it passes the May 1 deadline, when the British government's controversial Legacy Act kicks in.

“I believe they are trying to run down the clock in the case and it’s something we as a family are already prepared for. We’re going to have to look into other avenues after the first of May. I told everybody from the very start – and my mother said also – that they were delaying and delaying and we always said we suspected they would eventually turn around and say ‘Your time's up.’

“We’ve spent 30 years of our lives trying to get answers and truth about what happened to Paul and now they are effectively saying, ‘Your time is up and away you go.’ 

“If they have gone as far as to bring in the British government then that must mean they have something to hide and I’ve been saying that for years.”

Gemma McKeown, a Committee on the Administration of Justice Northern Ireland (CAJ) solicitor representing Eugene, said: “The first point is we should have been in the third week of an inquest now and on Friday the Coroner said we were going to receive the gist of the material which had been read in the files.

“We should be in the final stages of the inquest now but because material was brought to the Coroner’s attention which had to be subject to PII, the Coroner had to decide whether it was relevant for us to know the details and the Coroner decided we should be entitled to the gist of one of the files and because of this the PSNI and Secretary of State launched judicial review proceedings on Monday.

“Today we have just had an expedited hearing in the Judicial Review Court. Our primary concern is to ensure there is no delay and we want to ensure our client has a proper Article 2 Human Rights-compliant inquest and though we have not seen the material, we believe the Coroner is best placed to decide and we will be making submissions on the public interest of having this gist shared. 

“We will be launching submissions on that and it’s in for hearing next Friday,  March 22nd.

“Our client is very concerned about delays and there is a wider public interest in ensuring all relevant facts surrounding this inquest are ventilated publicly and there is a public interest test which needs to be applied. Our view is the Coroner has made that decision that this information be shared and we believe that should be upheld. There are a lot of serious allegations surrounding the death and we want to make sure there is a proper inquest without further delay.”