STATEMENT FROM PFC/ JFF REGARDING DECISION NOT TO PROSECUTE FORMER RUC OFFICER IN RELATION TO MULTIPLE MURDERS & ATTACKS FOLLOWING OPERATION NEWHAM INVESTIGATION

During the course of their investigation into the Glenanne series of murders (Operation Newham), the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) sent a file relating to a former RUC officer for consideration to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS). The PPS has now decided that there is insufficient evidence to mount a prosecution against this individual.

While this decision will be disappointing for the relevant families, the stark fact is that these cases were not properly investigated at the time the murders occurred (1970s) and, therefore, routes to justice 45/50 years later are negligible.

Operation Newham, however, is not simply about prosecutions but is primarily about truth recovery. Families have been assured that the report into all these murders, 120 plus, on both sides of the border will be published in advance of 1 May 2024, which is the arbitrary cut-off point put in place by the obnoxious Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation Act 2023).

Alan Brecknell, whose father, Trevor Brecknell, was killed in a gun and bomb attack on Donnelly’s Bar in Silverbridge in 1975, described the decision not to prosecute in his father’s case as “deeply disappointing but not surprising. The RUC was well aware of the identities of those who carried out these attacks while at the same time making sure not to carry out anything resembling a proper investigation. Rarely has the phrase justice delayed is justice denied rung more true.”

The decision not to prosecute concerns the following attacks;

The November 1974 bomb attack on Mc Ardle’s Bar in Crossmaglen. Thomas Mc Namee later died from his injuries;

The August 1975 murders of GAA supporters Sean Farmer and Colm Mc Cartney at a dummy UDR roadblock in S. Armagh;

The murders of Trevor Brecknell, Patsy Donnelly and Michael Donnelly at Donnelly’s Bar in Silverbridge in December 1975;

The murders of three members of the Reavey family, John Martin, Brian, and Anthony, in their home in January 1976.

The murder of Patrick Mone in a car bomb attack in Castleblayney in March 1976.