No collusion in sectarian killing but multiple police failings in murder inquiry

An inquiry into the sectarian murder of Robert Hamill has found police officers who were in a vehicle near the attack did not condone or collude with the attackers.

However, the inquiry said there were multiple police failings in the investigation, including a tip-off to a suspect to destroy the clothing he wore that night.

The report, published on Monday, highlighted multiple wrongful omissions in the subsequent murder investigation including a failure to properly search the home of a key suspect.

Robert Hamill was 25 when he died after he was beaten by loyalists in Portadown, County Armagh, in 1997.

The inquiry concluded in 2009 and its report was completed in 2011 but the findings could not be published until three prosecutions in connection with the case concluded.

The inquiry concluded: "We find that Robert Hamill had been assaulted before the Land Rover officers got out of their vehicle.

"However, they were not aware of the assault and after they had got out of their vehicle, they attempted to restore order.

"They did not in any way condone or collude with attackers."

Although the inquiry found that the four officers in the police Land Rover could not have prevented the murder, the police investigation was flawed – both at the scene and in the days that followed.

"The inquiry found that serving RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary] officers were guilty of wrongful omissions and that those omissions arose both at the scene and during the initial investigation," it said.

The inquiry concluded that some of the mistakes in the investigation were negligent, while others were deliberate.

The 290-page report followed an inquiry which cost approximately £33m.

The actions of the officers in the Land Rover have been the subject of many claims and counter-claims in the past three decades.

Given how close they were to the scene, questions have been asked about why they did not intervene sooner.

The inquiry found that they were "distracted talking to two members of the public".

On whether they could have done more, the three-person inquiry panel did not have a unanimous view.

Two members concluded that the officers in the police vehicle were not guilty "of any wrongful act or omission in relation to the death of Robert Hamill".

However, on this issue the chairperson Sir Edwin Jowitt "expressed a dissenting view".

The inquiry report identified a number of key mistakes in the police investigation.

These included:

• Failure to keep full records of the investigation

• Failure to properly search home of a key suspect

• Failure to carry out full debriefing of officers at scene of attack

Nobody has been convicted of the murder.

Speaking after the report's publication, Hamill's sister Diane said the family had "some reservations about aspects of this report".

"We as a family feel totally vindicated by the clear and unequivocal findings of the panel," she said.

"It documents multiple and shocking wrongdoing, some of it delivered by state agencies.

"These failings have led to those who murdered our brother evading justice."

She added that the family was "disappointed" that the panel could not agree "on the consequences of the police officers in the Land Rover failing to intervene while Robert was being attacked".

"I just want to reiterate that the people who killed our brother were never fully held accountable due to the obstructive conduct of the state justice agencies," she said.

In terms of deliberate mistakes, the actions of now-retired RUC officer Robert Atkinson were highlighted.

Atkinson was jailed in 2024 for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

The inquiry found he was "guilty of a wrongful act" for making a telephone call to the home of a suspect.

The report said this resulted in that individual "destroying or putting beyond the reach of police the clothes he had been wearing that night".

"This obstructed the investigation and was deliberate," stated the report.

It said Atkinson subsequently conspired to cover up the "tip-off telephone call".

This was "an obstruction of the murder investigation and was deliberate" according to the three-person inquiry panel.

Hamill and a friend were attacked and beaten by loyalists as they walked along Portadown's Market Street after a night out in April 1997.

He suffered serious head injuries and died 11 days later.

Hamill's murder was the subject of a public inquiry because it was alleged officers were parked in a police Land Rover nearby but did not intervene.

That inquiry ran for 77 days between 13 January and 17 December 2009.

It heard evidence in person from 174 witnesses and witness statements from a further 37 witnesses.

No one was convicted of the murder and in the decades after, Hamill's family demanded answers.

The sectarian killing happened at time when tensions were high in Northern Ireland.

While peace talks were under way, the Drumcree parade dispute in Portadown in the 1990s sparked some of the most serious public disorder in Northern Ireland's history.

The attack happened in the early hours of Sunday 27 April 1997.

At about 01:20 BST he left a dance at St Patrick's Hall and walked towards the town centre.

Different versions of events have been given for what happened next.

The inquiry stated: "Almost everything else that happened between the time when Robert Hamill left St Patrick's Hall and the time he was put into the ambulance is a matter of dispute."

However, the inquiry was in no doubt he was murdered.

The report stated: "Those who assaulted him must have at least intended to cause him serious injury."

It added: "Robert Hamill suffered head trauma either shortly after that violence broke out or a little later when…Protestant youths kicked him while he was on the ground."