Ombudman ‘could not establish’ that officers heard claim of Morley murder

By Rebecca Black, PA

Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman has not been able to establish whether two officers were present when a person admitted the murder of Eoin Morley.

Mr Morley was murdered by the Provisional IRA in Newry in 1990 in what has been described as a “punishment shooting gone wrong”.

Ombudsman Marie Anderson has undertaken two investigations around the murder, the second following the publication of a report in 2005 that the then RUC had failed to properly investigate the death.

That report alleged that intelligence relevant to the investigation had been withheld from the investigating officer.

The PSNI subsequently received information that alleged a person had admitted while in the presence of security services and RUC officers to shooting Mr Morley.

The Chief Constable referred the allegation to the Ombudsman and a criminal investigation began around the conduct of the two Special Branch officers.

Ombudsman investigators reviewed available intelligence and files from the RUC investigation into Mr Morley’s murder and established that the investigation had not been provided with information about alleged admissions.

They also secured a statement of evidence from an MI5 officer which detailed how and where the disclosure was made, together with the sequence of events leading up to Person A’s recruitment as an informant. He also provided a copy of the debrief notes made by the two police officers.

Though detailed, these notes did not contain any reference to any discussion relating to the murder of Mr Morley.

Both police officers were interviewed under caution as part of the investigation. Neither recalled any disclosure being made to them by Person A in relation to Mr Morley’s murder and both stated that they would have recorded information of such significance in their notes.

The Police Ombudsman submitted a file to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) for the alleged offences of Misconduct in Public Office and Attempting to Pervert the Course of Public Justice in respect of both officers.

The PPS directed no prosecution for one police officer. The second police officer had passed away prior to the PPS direction.

Ms Anderson said: “Although the matter was subject to exhaustive investigation by my Office, it was not possible to establish whether the account provided by the member of the security service is more accurate than those provided by the two police officers who were alleged to have heard the admission of murder.

“The PPS gave careful consideration to the available evidence submitted by my investigators and concluded there was no reasonable prospect of securing a conviction against any officer.”

Responding, Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said: “In 2005, the then Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland made a referral to the Office of the Police Ombudsman for an independent investigation into allegations that two police officers were present when a person admitted responsibility for the 1990 murder of Eoin Morley, and took no action and we welcome the publication of their report today.

“We will now take time to consider the report in full, however it is noted the Police Ombudsman has concluded that it could not be established that Special Branch Officers heard an admission of Mr Morley’s murder.”