Loughinisland Massacre - Investigation and Campaign By Victims' Families

Investigation and Campaign By Victims' Families

In 2006, an investigative media report claimed that a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) agent, codenamed "The Mechanic", had supplied the getaway car used in the attack. It further claimed that, although the RUC had known this, the agent was not arrested and continued working for the organisation. That year, the "Loughinisland Justice Group" was formed by the victims' families to gain a full investigation into the massacre.

On 21 March 2006, the families lodged an official complaint with the Police Ombudsman. It included allegations that:

The investigation into the murders has not been efficiently or properly carried out;
No earnest effort was made to identify the persons that carried out this atrocity; and
There persists a suspicion of state collusion in the murders.

More specific concerns were that:

• The getaway car had been recovered intact but was destroyed by the RUC in 1996
• A hair follicle was recovered from the car but nobody had yet been charged
• Investigators reported at least one of the weapons used was imported from South Africa in 1988 by British agent Brian Nelson.

The families asked the Police Ombudsman to investigate. Their solicitor reported that balaclavas, gloves, boiler suits and a bag (which had contained the guns used) was found in the car, although none of those items had since been subjected to the advances in forensic science.

The Loughinisland Justice Group travelled to London, accompanied by Sinn Féin MLA Caitríona Ruane, in November that year. They met a cross-party grouping of British politicians at Westminster, and raised concerns about the police investigation and allegations of state collusion. Caitríona Ruane said: "For 12 years the families of the six men killed by the UVF at Loughinisland have patiently waited for justice. As the years have gone on the families have began to raise serious questions about the murders and specifically the subsequent investigation into them". In 2008, Ruane and the Loughinisland Justice Group met with the Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson. Ruane re-iterated claims that "at least one British agent" was "directly involved" in the killings.