Chief Constable bids to overturn Glenanne Gang probe ruling

A PROBE into a bomb atrocity linked to a loyalist terror unit behind more than 100 murders met the “gold standard” of securing a conviction, the Court of Appeal has heard.

Chief Constable George Hamilton is challenging a High Court order compelling him to complete an overarching investigation into suspected state collusion in the Glenanne Gang’s killing spree in the 1970s.

The verdict was reached in a legal challenge brought in the name of Edward Barnard, whose 13-year-old brother Patrick was among four people killed in a St Patrick’s Day bombing at the Hillcrest Bar in Dungannon in March 1976.

Five years later UVF member Garnet James Busby was convicted after admitting his role in the attack. The murder gang, based at a farm in Glenanne, Co Armagh, allegedly contained members of the RUC and UDR.

A draft HET report into alleged security force collaboration with the killers was said to have been 80% finalised before being shelved. Mr Barnard and other relatives wanted police compelled to finish it and publish the findings.

But appealing the verdict, Tony McGleenan QC, counsel for Mr Hamilton, said: “The gold standard in terms of the analysis of Article 2 is to ensure a process is in place to allow the identification and prosecution of a perpetrator.

“That gold standard was available in this case, was met and on one analysis discharges the Article 2 obligation. This is not a case where we are still trying to find a perpetrator — we have a conviction in this case.”

The appeal continues.