Victims and families need to be listened to over Legacy Act – PSNI chief

By Cate McCurry, PA

Victims and families who do not support the UK Government’s Legacy Act need to be listened to, Northern Ireland’s police chief has said.

Jon Boutcher said the Legacy Act has been criticised by all the victims’ groups in Northern Ireland.

Speaking at a cross-border event in Cavan, the PSNI Chief Constable said there is a failure to include victims’ groups in dealing with legacy issues.

On Wednesday, the High Court in Belfast ruled that provisions for conditional immunity from prosecution for Troubles offences in the piece of legislation are not compatible with human rights legislation.

The Legacy Act received royal assent in September despite widespread opposition from political parties, victims’ organisations in Northern Ireland and the Government.

Mr Boutcher, who spoke ahead of the High Court ruling, said: “The legacy Bill – the nexus of it and the background of it – has been criticised by all the victims’ groups in Northern Ireland.

“I speak to victims literally every day. Whatever we do in legacy, we’ve got to do it with the support of and the co-operation of those victims’ groups and those victims and that isn’t happening.

“That’s why they’ve taken this legal action. So this is a really difficult space, but I think an opportunity did exist with the Stormont House agreement.”

Mr Boutcher said he supports a new body set up to probe Troubles killings.

“If that’s the only show in town, we’ve got to make it work. We’re going to make sure that they get unfettered access to all the information they need,” Mr Boutcher said.

He said lessons should be learned from Operation Kenova, which examined crimes such as murder and torture and the role played by the security services, including MI5.

Operation Kenova was headed by Mr Boutcher, who authored its report.

“When I started Kenova, I visited literally everybody who has been involved in legacy,” he added.

“Kenova will have got some things wrong but the victims fully supported it.

“I’ve listened to Declan Morgan (former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland) talk about saying that the intent is to have a Kenova plus-type inquiry into all of those cases where families want to know stuff.

“I think it should be victim led. That’s my whole mantra around this.

“The victims at the moment are not supportive of that legislation, so we need to listen to them.”

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the investigations into Troubles-related crimes are victim-focused.

Mr Harris refused to give his personal opinion about the Legacy Act, but said gardai are involved in a number of serious case reviews of Troubles cases.

“Compared to where crime investigation is now and where it was in the 1970s and 80s and even to the 1990s, we are victim-focused and when we engage in a serious case review, a lot of the work is actually engaged on the victims’ families and what information we are able to provide them,” Mr Harris said.

“Those are active investigations, and they are investigations where we get to a point where we are unable to conclude them.

“We take that work on, we get support from the PSNI in terms of information and intelligence where requested and that’s ongoing work over many years between PSNI and An Garda Siochana.”