UHRW calls for ICRIR to take up Teebane investigation case

Ulster Human Rights Watch will be asking the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) to take up the case of the PIRA Teebane atrocity.

Eight construction workers were killed and six others injured in the Provisional IRA attack in January 1992. No one has ever been charged or convicted for carrying out the outrage.

In 2018, Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW) lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman who did not provide the resources to allow the investigation to be initiated.

UHRW Advocacy Manager, Axel Schmidt, said: “This case should now be investigated by the ICRIR to answer important questions concerning the criminal investigation and the absence of protection given to the fourteen Karl Construction employees by the RUC.”

The ICRIR yesterday (Monday, 12^th Feb.) announced the appointment of Kate Meynell, Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police, to chair the Commission’s External Assurance Group to scrutinise the way it carries out investigations.

Mr Schmidt added: “Teebane was one of the worst terrorist atrocities carried out during the ‘Troubles’. Civilians working on the Lisanelly Army Barracks in Omagh were murdered because they were working for the security forces. It was cold-blooded, brutal and senseless.

“For years, the families have been searching for answers about the conduct of the investigation by the RUC. To say that it was insufficient and ineffective would be an under-statement.

“In a detailed file UHRW will pass to the ICRIR, we will ask about the inconclusive police investigation and the nature of security and information-sharing arrangements in place between the RUC and the company to protect the workers as they travelled to and from work.

“Crucially, we also raise the failure to arrest and question some suspects, particularly Suspect 9, despite the fact that he was identified in 1992 and by the PSNI in 2008 as being involved in the murders.

“The view is that RUC Special Branch protected its sources and may have covered one of several State agents who may have been involved … Essential information, that could have led to the prosecution of those involved, may have been withheld by RUC Special Branch. This issue deserves to be thoroughly examined by the ICRIR.”

“If there was any attempt to protect informers, then the families deserve to know the extent of what was involved and why it was more important to protect their identity than bring the bombers who carried out the attack to justice.”