Madden & Finucane
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Madden & Finucane
present
the Madden & Finucane
and Pat Finucane
Aisling Awards
The Aisling Bursaries, launched in March 2000, are
an educational initiative between Belfast Media Group and West Belfast
Partnership. The Aisling Bursaries are designed to help students defray their
education and training costs.
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Statement of Cairns Family in relation to the Police Ombudsman’s
Investigation into the murders of their sons Gerard Cairns and Rory Cairns on
28th October 1993
30 October 2007 --
The family of the murdered Gerard Cairns, aged 22 and Rory Cairns, aged 18
received a copy of the Investigative Report of the Police Ombudsman on the
evening of 29th October 2007 almost 14 years to the day from the date of the
murder of their sons by Loyalist Paramilitaries.
The Family notes the conclusion of the Police Ombudsman which have upheld their
complaints in three respects:
The first, that the Police trivilised the murders and that the investigation was
poor and devoid of any real determination to bring to justice those responsible
for the death of Gerard and Rory;
The second upholding the family’s complaint that the Police did not maintain
regular contact with the family;
The third in respect of the conduct of an officer referred to in the Report as
Officer C.
The Family are however very disappointed that the Police Ombudsman did not find
evidence of security force collusion in the course of their investigation.
The Police Ombudsman states that:
“There is evidence that Special Branch did not pass all the intelligence
relating to the murders and linked incidents to the investigating officer.”
“While up to 20 officers were initially allocated to the case, there is evidence
that after two weeks, most had been moved to other duties,”
“No new lines of inquiry were identified just three weeks after the murder, and
work on the investigation stopped after about three months.”
“Neither is there evidence that the police produced any reports to assist any
subsequent reviews of the investigation. Indeed, there is no evidence that any
such review took place. This should have been done in order to identify any new
lines of enquiry, particularly in relation to advances in forensic technology.”
In addition most of the significant forensic exhibits relating to the case had
been lost by the RUC.
All records of interviews with the nine suspects quizzed by the police had been
destroyed.
In respect of efforts made to track down the person who purchased the getaway
car at auction, a number of investigative opportunities had either been missed
or were not recorded in police documentation.
The Police Ombudsman has made a number of recommendations in relation to the
PSNI Historical Review Team and the family confirm that they have already been
contacted by the HET in relation to that reinvestigation of the murders of
Gerard and Rory.
Eamon Cairns, the father of Gerard and Rory stated:
“It is with grave concern and much pain, that we receive the report from the
Ombudsman, Mrs. Nuala O’Loan, into the murders of Gerard and Rory after 4 years
of investigation. Our search for the truth seems no closer. It seems hard to
believe that a professional and highly experienced police force could be accused
of this high degree of incompetence.
This report implicitly casts further suspicions that there was collusion, and a
subsequent cover up between then and now to ensure any such evidence would never
come to light.
We are conscious that our case is one of many similar cases. It is our belief
that the government has colluded with loyalists to kill our sons and it is a
source of eternal pain and frustration.
We thank those groups and friends who have and will continue to support us, both
our families and especially Peter Madden, Eugene Burns of Madden & Finucane
Solicitors and the Finucane family for their endurance in fighting our case”
Eugene Burns of the family’s solicitors Madden and Finucane, added:
“The anguish of the Cairns family at the murder of their two children has been
compounded by the failure of the RUC and PSNI to conduct an investigation to the
required standards.”
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