The former police ombudsman also told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry that during the controversy over her report in 2001, she was described on TV as a “suicide bomber who had outlived my usefulness”.
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who → tell → usefulness
Baroness O’Loan was giving evidence in the public inquiry into the dissident republican car bombing in Omagh on August 15 1998 which killed 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, in the worst single atrocity in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
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who → give → Ireland
The inquiry, chaired by Lord Turnbull, is holding evidential hearings in Belfast.
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inquiry → chair → Belfast
The latest phase of hearings, which will last for several weeks, is concentrating on the period before and after the bombing and will examine how it was carried out and who was responsible.
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who → last → bombing
The inquiry was set up by the previous government to examine whether the explosion could have been prevented by UK authorities.
Ms O’Loan, who was Northern Ireland’s first police ombudsman, launched a probe into the original RUC investigation into the atrocity following a report in a Sunday newspaper in 2001.
uncertain
who → set → 2001
The article in the Sunday People had contained claims that undercover agent Kevin Fulton had told his RUC handlers that a car bomb was being prepared three days before the attack in Omagh.
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bomb → contain → Omagh
Baroness O’Loan told the inquiry that she wanted to ensure that her investigation did not cause more trauma to the Omagh victims and their families.
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investigation → tell → victims
Lead counsel to the inquiry Paul Greaney KC asked if the investigation needed to be progressed as a matter of urgency.
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investigation → ask → urgency
She said: “It needed to be done as a matter of urgency, but it needed to be done properly.”
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it → say → urgency
Mr Greaney said: “Why, in your judgment, did it need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency?
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it → say → urgency
She said: “We were not investigating the Omagh bomb, but the work which we were doing was related to the investigation of the Omagh bomb, and when you’re investigating a criminal offence, the further you get from the date upon which the offence was committed, the more likely you are to lose witnesses, to lose investigative opportunities, to lose forensic opportunities.”
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you → say → opportunities
Asked if she felt supported by the Northern Ireland Office, Baroness O’Loan said: “Not particularly, no.”
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O’Loan → ask → Office
Asked about support from politicians in Northern Ireland, she said there was a “significant amount of outrage among certain members of the unionist parties”.
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she → ask → parties
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She said her investigation team spoke to Kevin Fulton and there was “nothing to indicate he was unreliable”.
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he → read → Fulton
Baroness O’Loan said she had understood that “all relevant material” would be made available by the RUC.
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material → say → RUC
She agreed with a suggestion that the information initially provided to her team was incomplete.
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information → agree → team
Mr Greaney said: “When you discovered that it was incomplete, was that a source of disappointment for you?”
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that → say → you
She said: “Yes.”
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She → say → ?
Baroness O’Loan said her team received information in September 2001 that the RUC had previously ordered a review of its investigation into Omagh which had been carried out by Chief Superintendent Brian McVicker.
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which → say → McVicker
She said she later became aware there was also a separate Omagh intelligence report.
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she → say → ?
The former ombudsman told the inquiry that when she sought a copy of the McVicker review, she was told there was only one copy, it was in the safe of a senior officer and was not likely to be made available.
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it → tell → officer
Mr Greaney said: “Did you regard that as an acceptable state of affairs?
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you → say → affairs
Baroness O’Loan said: “No.”
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O’Loan → say → ?
Mr Greaney referred to the use of the word “astonishment” in her statement to the inquiry.
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Greaney → refer → inquiry
She said: “We were now nearly six weeks into an inquiry.
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We → say → inquiry
“We had asked for all the intelligence, and we haven’t even been told about this very significant document.
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we → ask → document
Baroness O’Loan said a copy of the McVicker review was later delivered to her personally by then RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
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copy → say → Flanagan
Mr Greaney asked if she continued to “experience certain difficulties”.
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she → ask → difficulties
Baroness O’Loan said: “When we received intelligence in the beginning, it was redacted, and really you can’t conduct an inquiry on the basis of redacted intelligence.
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you → say → intelligence
“And then we couldn’t get access to the police database for handling intelligence, so there
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we → get → intelligence
That was eventually granted.”
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That → grant → ?
She added: “I have to say that it really was profoundly difficult…
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it → add → ?
we were trying to almost draw teeth in terms of getting information out of the police.”
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we → try → police
Baroness O’Loan said she published her draft report into Omagh on November 28 2001 and her final report on December 12.
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she → say → December
She told the inquiry there had been “intervention” by the Northern Ireland Office in the period before she published the report.
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she → tell → report
She said she had had a “long and difficult” meeting with a senior NIO official in October, who told her relations between her office and the police were “breaking down”.
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relations → say → office
Baroness O’Loan said after she had delivered her draft report, its contents were leaked to the Sunday Times and she received a call from then NIO minister Jane Kennedy to say journalists had been “briefed extensively” on the report.
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journalists → say → report
She said it had been subsequently confirmed by journalists the leak had not come from her office.
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leak → say → office
Baroness O’Loan said she went to an event at Hillsborough Castle on December 10 where she had a private meeting with Sir Ronnie Flanagan ahead of the publication of the final report.
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she → say → report
She said: “He, among other things, told me that I was going to destroy the peace process, that my office would never recover.”
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office → say → process
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
