Refusal not to hold public inquiry unlawful, court rules

The UK government’s refusal to hold a public inquiry into the murder of GAA official Sean Brown is unlawful, the Court of Appeal in Belfast has ruled.

It has given the Secretary of State Hilary Benn four weeks to reconsider the matter.

Intelligence material has linked state agents to the 61-year-old’s murder by the Loyalist Volunteer Force in 1997.

He was abducted from outside a GAA club in Bellaghy, County Londonderry and driven to Randalstown in County Antrim, where he was shot six times in the head.

The government began a legal challenge which attempted to overturn a decision by a court to order a public inquiry into the loyalist murder of Mr Brown.

Speaking after a previous hearing, Mr Brown’s daughter Clare Loughran said the family had been to court 57 times over her father’s killing.

“All we want to do is get to the truth,” she said.

“We have endured an awful lot over the last 28 years and we’re not going to give up at this stage.”

She called on the Northern Ireland secretary to “do the right thing” and let a public inquiry proceed.

Mr Brown was locking the gates of GAA club Bellaghy Wolfe Tones when he was kidnapped by the paramilitary grouping, the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).

Early last year, a court heard that more than 25 people, including state agents, had been linked by intelligence material to Mr Brown’s murder.

Last March, a coroner said Mr Brown’s inquest could not continue due to material being withheld on the grounds of national security.

He decided that redactions of intelligence material meant he could not properly investigate the circumstances of the killing.

Instead, he wrote to the then Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, requesting a public inquiry into the case.

In December, the High Court ruled that current Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn must set up a public inquiry into the murder.