A response to a request to the Minister for Justice, Naomi Long, to increase Police Ombudsman resources for Legacy investigations, but particularly around the 1973 shooting of Michael Leonard, has revealed additional funding has been granted for such cases.
Mr. Leonard was killed by shots fired from a police Land Rover, and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council previously agreed to call for a fresh inquest.
The Attorney General confirmed this is under consideration, and while the Police Ombudsman advised an investigation is on their list, there are funding issues.
The Minister advised the Ombudsman’s Office received an additional £1.7m in 2021/22 for historic investigations, but stressed it operates independently and she could not interfere in investigations, including how funding is utilised or cases prioritised.
Independent Councillor Bernice Swift referred to the recent Ombudsman report, which she described as “self-censored”, into collusion behaviour and activity by Crown forces.
“This is similar to the Michael Leonard case, but focused particularly on murders of 19 civilians in the North West, while outside this Council district, there was a systematic approach.
"Reports and truth and justice remain outstanding. That particular report was laced with deliberate omissions and euphemisms, using dry language that plays down the gravity of the issues for families who still pursue truth and justice,” claimed Councillor Swift.
However, she noted “incriminating findings which are also outstanding in the Michael Leonard case along with all the others, and I always speak on behalf of victims".
She continued: "While the families in the Ombudsman case felt vindicated in their long campaign, there’s little faith now left that other cases, such as Michael Leonard, will lead to prosecutions against Crown forces who worked in such collusive behaviour.”
Councillor Swift concluded by asking why the terms of the Stormont House Agreement on truth and justice “is not up and running?"
She added: "There is, again, deliberate failings to help victims of the conflict. I restate: an independent international truth commission is really how victims obtain truth and justice.”
Sinn Fein’s Councillor Siobhan Currie, who originally tabled the Motion calling for a second inquest into Mr. Leonard’s death, said: “I appreciate the Minister [for Justice] says additional funding has been provided to the Ombudsman, but Legacy investigations and how they being dealt with are underfunded.
"I don’t think any of us are under any illusions, and we are all united in the way victims are being treated by the British government.
"I take the Minister’s letter at face value, but it doesn’t leave us any further on.
"I do note, however, correspondence from the Attorney General indicated looking at reopening the inquest.”
Councillor Bert Wilson, Ulster Unionist, agreed families from all sections of the community need to know what happened to their loved ones.
He said: “We look at Teebane, when men coming home from work, not annoying anybody, were taken from their van and murdered at the side of the road.
"The Enniskillen bomb, the Omagh bomb. A young lad from Fintona delivering milk murdered, and his sister suffered so much afterwards she committed suicide.
"The five men doing repairs in Brougher Mountain, blown to pieces. Robert Jamison, who joined the UDR to save for a car, found lying, shot like a dog.”
He concluded: “There’s a lot of families who have sad homes and all these instances should be looked into, not just one section.”
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