FAMILIES bereaved in the Sean Graham Bookmaker's atrocity have called on the Police Ombudsman to release the long-awaited report into their loved ones' murders.
It comes after relatives of those killed during the Troubles held a protest at the Ombudsman's Office on Thursday to call for the release of delayed legacy reports.
The 1992 bookies’ massacre was carried out by the UFF in collusion with RUC and claimed the lives of five innocent civilians.
In 2019, the publication of a Police Ombudsman investigation into the massacre was delayed after it emerged that PSNI had shared covert files relating to legacy civil cases with the watchdog.
In a statement released via Relatives for Justice, the families of those murdered in the atrocity said: "We’ve been told for the past number of years that the report into the murders of our loved ones is completed and were promised on four occasions that it would be published. Each time this has been delayed and we have been failed – why?"
The families noted the "clear and irrefutable evidence of collusion" in their loved ones' killings including "the planning of the attack, carrying it out, the provision of weapons, to the deliberately flawed and perfunctory investigation, which amounted to a cover-up".
"This involved every branch and agency of the State’s policing and security apparatus," the statement added.
"We will not accept any findings that fail or fall short in explicitly determining the unprecedented levels of collusion in this murderous atrocity."
Yesterday's protest was organised by the Time for Truth Campaign, which has called for the implementation of legacy mechanisms in the Stormont House Agreement, and the proper funding and resourcing of legacy investigations.
Spokesperson for the Time for Truth Campaign, Ciarán MacAirt, said: “The families of the Time for Truth Campaign are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with these families and demanding that the Police Ombudsman immediately releases outstanding reports.
“The bereaved families and injured victims have had to stomach denial and delay for too long. Victims and survivors have faced police attempts to undermine the statutory powers of the Office of the Police Ombudsman; they have had to suffer police failure to disclose critical evidence which proved state agents were directly involved in the murder of their loved ones.”
“Today they have to face the fear that Britain will give an amnesty to its killers and deny families access to due legal process – legislative proposals which would shame a Third World dictatorship.”
“But the denial to publish completed investigations lies with the Office of the Police Ombudsman and that is why our families are protesting here today.”
