The widows of two murder victims denied compensation because of their husbands’
paramilitary convictions have taken a giant step towards substantial pay-outs.
The development follows judgments in Belfast’s Court of Appeal in the cases of
John McColgan and Mark McNeill, from west Belfast, who were killed in separate
incidents.
Their families have been involved in protracted court hearings over
compensation, but in a reserved judgment yesterday three judges ruled that the
Secretary of State must reconsider his decision to refuse money to Lorraine
McColgan and Anne McNeill.
However, in the case of a third widow, Ann-Marie McCallion from Derry, the
judges held that the
Secretary of State was under no obligation to give reasons for refusing
compensation, and her appeal was dismissed.
In the cases of Mr McColgan and Mr McNeill, compensation was refused by the
government on the grounds they had been engaged in the “commission, preparation
or instigation of acts of terrorism”.
Mr McColgan, a taxi driver, who was murdered by the LVF at Hannahstown on the
outskirts of west Belfast in 1998, had been convicted of possessing explosives
and receiv-ed a two-year suspended sentence.
Mr McNeill, who was shot outside a taxi depot at Shaw’s Road in west Belfast in
1998, had been convicted of possessing a firearm and got four months in a Young
Offenders Centre.
Derry man Peter McCallion died after a fight in December 1998, des-cribed as a
case of “name calling which got out of hand”. He had been jailed for 18 years
for his part in an IRA ambush on soldiers.
Lord Justice Nicholson referred to similar cases in which compensation was paid
and said there seemed to be no difference between them.
Referring to Mrs McColgan’s case, he said the failure of the Compensation Agency
to inform the Secretary of State as to why her claim could be distinguished from
others led him to the conclusion there had been inequality of treatment.
“There was a failure to recognise that the information supplied to the minister
was inadequate to ensure that he made a decision consistent with the eight other
decisions in which he awarded compensation,” the judge said.
Solicitor Peter Madden, who represented all three widows, said afterwards:
“While we welcome the Court of Appeal decisions in the cases of Mrs McColgan and
Mrs McNeill, we are disappointed that it has dismissed Mrs McCallion’s appeal
and will consider with her what options remain.”
A spokesman for the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre, which supported Mrs
McColgan’s case, said: “We welcome the fact that she has won her appeal, but we
find it very regrettable that a woman whose husband was murdered had to go to
court to get compensation for her children. That beggars belief.”