Baroness Nuala O’Loan said she is shocked by the revelations into Sean Brown’s killing
A former police ombudsman has backed calls for a public inquiry into the murder of a GAA official in 1997.
Sean Brown was shot after he was abducted by the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) in 1997.
On Tuesday, it emerged that documents shown to an inquest into Mr Brown’s death revealed 25 people were linked to his murder.
Among them were state agents, a counsel for the coroner said in an update at the Royal Courts of Justice.
The inquest into the 61-year-old’s death opened in March 2023 and it is scheduled to resume next month.
Before this happens, sensitive material relating to the murder must be security-vetted and distributed to the legal parties involved.
The public interest immunity process in the case has been taking place in closed hearings in recent weeks.
‘Enormously concerned’
Baroness O’Loan, who investigated the death in 2004, said she found it “incredible that 27 years on police have finally found information”.
“I haven’t seen the documents that were disclosed yesterday but I do know there were 19 pieces of intelligence made available to me and that six of them related to and provided helpful information around the murder and its investigation,” she told BBC News NI’s Good Morning Ulster.
“That material should have been available to the coroner without any difficulty so that means there are 25 new people linked to this murder.
“This must have been known at the time and I think it’s terrible, and most terrible I think for the Brown family. I don’t know how some of these families keep going – 27 years to wait to find out this information.”
Asked if she backed the family’s call for a public inquiry, Baroness O’Loan said: “The government are resistant to the introduction of public inquiries. Should they do it? Yes, of course they should.”
Image source, Pacemaker
Sean Brown was abducted and murdered in 1997
Mr Brown was abducted in Bellaghy, County Londonderry, and shot near Randalstown, County Antrim.
He was locking the gates of GAA club Bellaghy Wolfe Tones when he was taken by the LVF.
The Police Ombudsman examination of the case found an RUC investigation into Mr Brown’s murder was “incomplete and inadequate”.
Image source, Pacemaker
Sean Brown’s body was found in a burnt-out car near Randalstown
Intelligence material
In his update on Tuesday, counsel for the coroner Joseph Aiken KC said documentation shown to the inquest “indicates that in excess of 25 individuals were linked through intelligence to the murder of Sean Brown”.
He added: “The intelligence material indicates that those individuals are said to have been involved at the material time with loyalist paramilitaries.
“The intelligence material indicates that at the time of the death of Sean Brown, a number of the individuals linked through intelligence to the murder were agents of the state.”
Mr Aiken said the individuals come from different areas of Northern Ireland and are not necessarily linked to one another.
A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office said the UK government “acknowledges the suffering caused by the murder of Sean Brown”, adding that the Northern Ireland secretary “will carefully consider the coroner’s ruling when it is delivered”.
A PSNI spokesperson said the organisation is aware that Tuesday will “have been another upsetting and difficult day for the Brown family and we understand the suffering they continue to go through”.
They added: “As this is the subject of ongoing inquest proceedings, it would be inappropriate for the Police Service to comment further at this time.”
