Police deny that murder inquests have been ‘leapfrogged’ by Omagh bomb inquiry

A senior police officer has denied that long-delayed inquests have been “leapfrogged” as she defended the PSNI decision to divert resources to servicing the Omagh bomb inquiry.

Giving evidence to a coroner in Craigavon, temporary Chief Superintendent Claire McGuigan sought to explain the move to take specialist researchers off inquests into historical cases for a period of six months to instead work on preparing and vetting documents for the public inquiry into the 1998 atrocity in the Co Tyrone town.

Ms McGuigan, who heads up the PSNI’s legacy and disclosure branch, was testifying at a preliminary hearing in the inquest for a police officer murdered in 1977.

Sergeant Joseph Campbell was shot dead outside Cushendall RUC station in February 1977.

Evidence at previous hearings and the contents of legal correspondence from the police had indicated that police work to disclose documents to the inquest was set to be affected by the six-month diversion of the branch’s 30-strong team to the Omagh inquiry.

However, on Monday Ms McGuigan insisted that the impact on the Campbell case was likely to be minimal, as she highlighted that much of the disclosure research had already been completed.

She said a review exercise of the documents would be able to continue while the work required by the Omagh inquiry was continuing.

But Ms McGuigan did acknowledge that the diversion would have an impact on other inquest cases.

She highlighted that if the full team was not diverted onto the Omagh work, then the disclosure exercise for the public inquiry would have taken three years.

“The inquiry team were also aware that it was looking like it was going to take that length of time (three years), and they had indicated to us that that was unacceptable, which obviously we accepted as well,” the officer added.

Karen Quinlivan KC, representing the Campbell family, noted that the inquest was first ordered 10 years ago. She said the disclosure process had been ongoing in other cases for even longer.

“What we’re trying to understand is why the Chief Constable (Jon Boutcher) thought that the Omagh (inquiry), which was only ordered in 2024, should leapfrog every other case, can you explain why that was considered appropriate?” the barrister asked.

Ms McGuigan replied: “I think it would be right to say that we’re certainly not making it a leapfrog or putting it ahead, and I appreciate that it may look like in the past we have delayed or created a delay (in inquests). We are trying our best to look at ways to be more effective and efficient.”

Ms Quinlivan added: “Apparently the Chief Constable accepted that the delay of three years was unacceptable for the Omagh families, but, respectfully, he’s had no problem with delays – if we just confine ourselves to this case – of 10 years was acceptable for this family.”

The officer responded: “I don’t think that the Chief Constable would say that 10 years was acceptable for this either.”

Coroner Patrick McGurgan then asked the officer what would happen if the Omagh inquiry asked for other work to be undertaken. He then queried whether researchers would also be diverted to the planned public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor of Pat Finucane.

He said: “Am I going to be told as each inquiry comes through ‘a rule nine request (request for information for a public inquiry) has come in, we have to down tools and surge to the inquiries?’

“What has the PSNI done to forward think.”

Ms McGuigan acknowledged that the branch did not have enough resources for the potential future workload.

“We are in the progress of preparing a business case for the Finucane Inquiry,” she said.

“We don’t have any more resources at this point in time, we are going to need more resources, and I know that the Chief Constable is seeking that assistance from the Government and from the Executive.

“I think the funding situation for the PSNI is well out in the public domain. We don’t have enough budget to cover our contemporary policing.

“We do actually take some funding from contemporary policing in order to deal with legacy. So we’re in a very, very difficult position, and we’re trying and we’re engaging with all the necessary people in order to get the funding in place.”

The case was listed again for a further review on September 5.