New delay for Loughinisland report
The Police Ombudsman has postponed the publication of a report into the 1994 Loughinisland shootings, at the request of the families of those killed.
Six, Catholic men died in the terrorist attack 17 years ago, when UVF gunmen sprayed the Heights Bar in the Co Down village with 200 bullets.
Their relatives claim there was security force collusion and hope a report from the Police Ombudsman, which has seen a number of delays, will provide answers.
The findings of the investigation were due to be released this week, however that has now been put off until June.
The move comes after talks between the Ombudsman and the families, who are understood to be unhappy with some of the content of the report.
“The Police Ombudsman’s Public Statement on its investigation into circumstances surrounding the 1994 terrorist attack on The Heights Bar in Loughinisland, in which si, people were killed, has been postponed,” a press release said on Monday.
“The families of those killed and those injured in the attack had asked that the findings not be published this week. Having listened to their views, the Police Ombudsman has agreed to a delay of several weeks.”
The long-awaited Loughinisland report was originally ready for publication in 2008.
That was pushed back so that reviews could take place after new information came forward, amid claims that further checks on the report needed to be conducted.
Last year, a file was sent to the PPS to consider whether to press charges against a police officer involved in the case, who was alleged to have helped the gunmen.
The prosecution did not go ahead, after there was found to be “insufficient evidence” to support a conviction.
Details of the initial findings of the Ombudsman, which were obtained by UTV, showed there were considered to be major failings in the original investigation, including claims that enough effort was not made to identity the killers, that police failed to speak to people of interest, and that key forensic evidence was destroyed.
