A REPORT is being launched today into the sectarian murder of a 26-year-old Catholic man who was shot dead in March 1988 as he arrived for work at Dunnes Stores on the Annadale Embankment.
Charles McGrillen had a young wife and a toddler at the time of his killing. In the years that followed his murder his family faced ongoing intimidation, including threats, attacks on his grave, as well as a complete absence of a meaningful investigation into his murder.
The family report, published by Relatives for Justice, raises wider concerns around collusion, the handling of intelligence, and the failure to prevent or properly investigate the killing, particularly given the known presence of state agents within loyalist paramilitary organisations at the time.
The report into the murder is being launched today, May 6, which would have been Charlie’s 65th birthday. The South Belfast man was shot dead by the UDA-UFF on March 15 1988 in what was one of the bloodiest periods of the conflict. It was the same month that three IRA members were shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. Their funeral, which took place the day after Charlie was killed, was attacked by loyalist Michael Stone with three mourners being killed.
Charlie grew up on the Ormeau Road and married his wife Catherine Clinton in 1983 and both of them started working in Dunne’s in the same year, where Charlie worked as a forklift driver. Their daughter Charlene was born in 1985.
There were always suspicions that UDA men Joe Bratty and Raymond Elder – who were themselves shot dead by the IRA in 1984 – were involved in Charlie’s murder. A Police Ombudsman report in 2022 regarding Operation Achille, an investigation into police handling of loyalist paramilitary murders and attempted murders in South Belfast between 1990 and 1998, identified “significant investigative and intelligence failures and ‘collusive behaviours’ by the RUC”.
No one has ever been prosecuted in connection with Charlie’s murder. Operation Achille also revealed that the RUC Special Branch had eight agents working for them within the South Belfast UDA during a time when the UDA was responsible for 27 murders and numerous attempted murders. Charlie’s family believes that some of these same agents were working for Special Branch at the time of his murder.
Irati Oleaga from Relatives for Justice said the impact from Charles’ killing continues to shape the lives of his family across generations.
Irati Oleaga from Relatives for Justice with Catherine Gormley and Charlene Smyth
“The family have spent years seeking truth and accountability,” said Irati. “That pursuit has been repeatedly frustrated — most recently when the Police Ombudsman accepted the case under its ‘grave and exceptional’ policy, only for that investigation to be shut down by the Legacy Act.
“The Legacy Act dismantled existing pathways to ECHR Article 2–compliant investigations and replaced them with a mechanism, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), that families neither trust nor recognise as credible. That position has been reinforced by the courts here, yet families remain in limbo while the British Government delays the introduction of new, lawful mechanisms.
“Two years on from the introduction of that legislation and the establishment of its ICRIR, families remain without any lawful, human rights–compliant mechanism capable of delivering truth and accountable justice. They are still waiting on the British Government to fulfil its commitment to repeal and replace the current framework with one that meets its legal obligations to bereaved families.
“In the absence of any effective, human rights–compliant process, families are being left to do this work themselves — documenting the truth, preserving memory, and continuing their fight for justice.
“Relatives for Justice is honoured to support families in that work. We pay tribute to Catherine and Charlene for their strength, dignity and unwavering determination in the face of profound loss and continued injustice, and will continue to stand alongside them in their pursuit of truth, justice and accountability.”
The comprehensive and beautifully produced 24-page report is available from RFJ’s Glen Road office.
