Douglas Bain, direttore dei servizi dal 2000 fino a metà 2006, ha fatto l’osservazione in risposta alle domande dei membri che conducono l’indagine sulla morte del leader lealista Billy Wright.
Il comandante della Loyalist Volunteer Force fu ucciso da prigionieri dell’Irish National Liberation Army all’interno della prigione di Maze/Long Kesh nel 1997.
L’inchiesta fu istruita in seguito all’indagine di un giudice canadese in pensione, Peter Cory, sulle accuse di collusione con il Prison Service ed altre autorità.
Ieri, durante l’ultimo giorno di testimonianze, Bain, adesso è Chief Electoral Officer, fu obbligato a spiegare come quasi 60.000 documenti carcerari furono distrutti nonostante alcune circolari inviate da lui ai vari direttori di carcere spiegavano che “in nessun caso” i file su prigionieri ritenuti terroristi o morti in carcere andavano distrutti.
Alcune di queste segnalazione includevano documenti sulla sicurezza di 800 prigionieri, includendo virtualmente tutte le persone rilasciate in base al Good Friday Agreement, e i registri delle attività giornaliere nel blocco H-6, dove avvenne l’omicidio.
L’inchiesta ha potuto sapere che l’ex direttore di Maze/Long Kesh Martin Mogg, morto nel 2005, fu colui che ordinò la distruzione dei documenti.
Quando il membro della commissione Andrew Coyle chiede come avrebbe reagito alla notizia che un direttore di carcere stava distruggendo documento nonostante ripetuti richiami a non eseguire mai tale operazione, Douglas Bain ha replicato: “Francamente, nulla mi sorprenderebbe nel Prison Service. I direttori di carcere si sentono autonomi”.
“Perché ci avete provato, allora?” ha chiesto di rimando Coyle. “Quale comportamento vi aspettavate?”
In precedenza l’ex direttore del Prison Service fu interrogato da Alan Kane, l’avvocato che fa le veci dalla famiglia Wright, che ha domandato a Bain il motivo per cui non fornì una nota sulla morte del lealista al team di indagine quando cominciò il processo di raccolta di documenti.
Bai ha detto di aver pensato che il file “non sarebbe stato rilevante”.
L’inchiesta prosegue a giugno.
Tratto da Irish Times
Official tells Wright probe of governor’s order to burn files
Douglas Bain, who was the director of services from 2000 to mid 2006, made the remarks in response to a line of questioning from panel members conducting the probe into the death of leading loyalist Billy Wright.
The LVF leader was shot dead by INLA inmates in the Maze prison in 1997.
The inquiry was set up following an investigation by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory into allegations of collusion by the prison service and other authorities.
Yesterday, during the last day of evidence, Mr Bain, who is now Chief Electoral Officer, was forced to explain how up to 60,000 prison services records were |destroyed despite a number of directives sent by him to the various governors spelling out that “under no circumstances” should records of any prisoner who had been deemed a terrorist or who had died in custody be destroyed.
Some of these records included security files on 800 prisoners including virtually every inmate released under the Good Friday Agreement, and journals describing activity in H-6, the block where the murder took place.
The inquiry heard that former governor Martin Mogg, who died in 2005, was the governor who ordered the “incineration” of the files.
When asked by inquiry panel member Andrew Coyle how he would react to a governor ordering the destruction of files even though they had received memos outlining that the action should never take place, Mr Bain replied: “Frankly, nothing would surprise me in the Prison Service. The governors regard themselves as autonomous.”
“Why did you try then?” Mr Coyle asked back. “Was that the sort of behaviour you would |expect?”
Mr Bain then replied that he meant the comment in general and that when he first heard that it was Mr Mogg who had ordered the destruction of the files, he thought “it was out of character”.
Earlier the former director of the Prison Service was also questioned by Alan Kane, a barrister acting on behalf of the Wright family, over why he failed to hand over a file on the murdered loyalist to the inquiry team when the process for collecting documents began.
Mr Bain said that he thought the file did “not appear to be relevant”.
The inquiry will return in June.