March 13, 2011 23

EXCLUSIVE BAGGOTT PRESSURE TURNED UP

DOUBLE NO ANSWERS: McGartland

Cops refuse
WHAMMY! BLOODBATH: The
aftermath of the UVF
to reveal spy
gun hit info
By JOHN CASSIDY
massacre in The THE Sunday W orld has
Heights Bar in been ‘gagged’ by a British
police force over a probe
Loughlinisland in 1994. into the IRA murder bid on
Below, the chief RUC agent Martin
suspect in the murders, McGartland.
Gorman McMullan. Two months after
Right, Cop chief Matt Northumbria Police refused
Baggott has come into to answer his questions
about its investigation into
sharp criticism over the his 1999 shooting. the same
delayed report into the force is now refusing to
shootings answer Sunday W orld
questions about the
sanctioned Provo hit.
And the force – who have
yet to charge a single IRA
terrorist with the near fatal
shooting – claims our
request for answers under
the Freedom of
Information Act is
“vexatious’’.
It is the same response it
gave to Martin McGartland
when he asked for answers
to questions on his case.
Last night, McGartland
accused Northumbria
Police of a “political cover
up’’ to protect Sinn Fein
and the peace process.
“Northumbria Police
can’t give a straight answer
to a straight question,’’ he
told the Sunday World this
week from his secret
hideaway address

More heat on cop boss after second

THE Chief Constable is fac- somewhere in the UK.
ing a double whammy over Disgrace
Police Ombudsman probes “I believe Northumbria
into UVF atrocities. Police have familial DNA

loyalist massacre report is delayed

Matt Baggott is already facing
complaints from the McGurk’s
Bar families over his response to
the Ombudsman’s report into
that atrocity and his failure to
say “sorry’’
Now Police Ombudsman Al
Hutchinson is preparing to deliver
another damning report – this time
into the RUC investigation into the
UVF massacre at Loughinisland.
The report into the slaughter of six
Catholic men as they watched a World
Cup football match on television at The
Heights Bar in the County Down village
in June 1994 was due to be published
next week.
But now it has been delayed again –
the second time it has been postponed
over the past two years.
The relatives had first been told they
would see the report into claims of
alleged security force collusion and a
bungled police investigation to catch
the killers in September 2009.
Now the Sunday W orld has revealed
that the Ombudsman has told the fami-
lies he needs more time to consider
“new evidence’’ and to make factual
corrections to the report.
In July last year,the Al Hutchinson had
to pull the report into the UVF attack on
McGurk’s bar in 1971 after some families
reacted angrily to some of the report’s
findings clearing the police of either aid-
ing the attackers or failing to properly
investigateit.
SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie has
By JOHN CASSIDY
lodged a strong complaint with Mr
Hutchinson’s office at yet another delay
in the Loughinisland report .
The South Down MP is due to meet
him tomorrow to discuss the issue this
second delay.
“It is my view that the victims have
been treated in a most unacceptable
manner by the Ombudsman’s office,’’
said the SDLP leader.
“Patience has worn thin with the
Ombudsman’s handling of
Loughinisland report.
“I will be looking for answers for the
families and I will be outlining in the
strongest possible terms the need for
this report to be published as soon as
possible.’’
Revealed
The families have suspected for years
that a secret deal was reached to pre-
vent the prosecution of the UVF killers.
The dirty deal was believed to have
been done as part of an agreement to
get a loyalist ceasefire in October 1994
and to protect security force agents
involved in the massacre.
One suspect is ‘king of the sex
swingers’ Gorman ‘Gormy’ McMullan
who was arrested and questioned over
the atrocity
The Sunday W orld has revealed that
UVF brigadier-in-chief John ‘Bunter’
Graham sanctioned the atrocity.
He asked his south-east Antrim
brigadier Rab Warnock to get a car.
Warnock in turn asked UVF Mount
Vernon commander Mark Haddock to
secure a car.
Haddock approached his Catholic
friend and UVF member Terry Fairfield
– aka police informer ‘Mechanic’ – to
get him a car.
Fairfield supplied the Triumph Acclaim
but denies knowing what it was to be used
in.
The Police Ombudsman’s office’s
investigation into the atrocity has large-
ly focused on this getaway car used by
the UVF gang.
Investigators from the Ombudman’s
office have been looking at the pur-
chase, use and disposal of the Triumph
Acclaim getaway car by the killers.
The investigators also looked at the
role of Terry Fairfield in supplying the
car.
They are also keen to establish who in
the RUC gave the go-ahead, two years
after the pub killings, for the getaway
car to be destroyed.
It was stored, uncovered, at a police
station in the mid-Down area but even-
tually taken away and scrapped.
The investigation is also expected to
report on why people arrested – includ-
ing leading suspects – were not subject
to forensic examination.
At one stage during the Ombudsman’s
investigation officers arrested a part-
time PSNI reserve constable at his
home in Co Down. He was questioned
about assisting an offender, perverting
the course of justice and withholding
information.
But the Public Prosecution Service
decided not to proceed with charges
against the officer.
Insisting
This cleared the way for Mr
Hutchinson to publish his report. He
told the families at the beginning of
last month that he would publish in the
week beginning March 21.
Miss Ritchie said she will be demanding
an early publication date at tomorrow’s
meeting and insisting that Mr
Hutchinson’s office sticks to this.
The six innocent Catholic men who
were killed in the atrocity at the
Heights Bar included the oldest victim
of the Troubles, 87 year-old Barney
Green. His 59 year-old nephew Dan
McCreanor died beside him. The
youngest to die was 34 year-old Adrian
Rogan; brothers-in-law Eamon Byrne
and Patsy O’Hare, and Malcolm
Jenkinson were the other victims.
from the crime scene
linked to family members
of the gunmen.
“I believe the police have
told the Government, MI5
or its advisers of this
familial DNA and the
Northumbria Police have
been told not to act on it as
it could rock the political
boat in Northern Ireland.
“It is an absolute
disgrace that Northumbria
Police can think they can
fob off newspapers who are
making a genuine request
for information about the
attempt on my life.
“As the victim in this case,
no one is keener than I for
the perpetrators for the
savage attack upon me that
changed my life forever,be
apprehended, put before the
courts and sent to prison.
“The Sunday W orld has
supported me in my quest
for this to happen.
Northumbria Police
“Neither I nor the Sunday
W orld I would do anything
that would prevent this
from happening.
“Northumbria Police are
so desperate to silence me
and the Sunday World, to
stop us for asking
embarrassing questions,
that they will do or say any-
thing whether or not it is
true and irrespective of
what damage they do to me
or anyone else in the
process.’’