Ex-police officer admits to conspiracy charge over Hamill murder

A FORMER police officer who was at the scene the night Robert Hamill was beaten to death in a sectarian attack in 1997 yesterday admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Robert Cecil Atkinson’s plea came on the second day of his trial at Craigavon Crown Court, sitting in Ballymena.

Defence KC Barry Gibson asked for count one to be put to Atkinson again. Standing in the dock, dressed in a navy-blue suit and striped tie, the 70-year-old admitted the offence.

The particulars of the offence state that between September 8 and October 30, 1997, the retired RUC reserve constable “conspired together with Andrea Louise Mckee, James Michael Robert Mckee and others, to do an act which had a tendency to pervert the course of public justice”.

The offences added that Atkinson “agreed to give false information to police officers making enquiries about a telephone call made from your house on April 27, 1997, at 8.37am as to the identity of the person making that call”.

Following Atkinson’s admission, prosecuting KC Toby Hedworth told Judge Patrick Lynch KC that the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) was “offering no further evidence” against two co-accused — the defendant’s wife, Eleanor Atkinson (70), and Kenneth Hanvey (72).

Mr Hedworth said the PPS had decided to offer no further evidence against Mrs Atkinson and Mr Hanvey having “taken instructions at the highest level and also having consulted with the member of the Hamill family”.

Accordingly, the Diplock, non-jury trial judge recorded ‘not guilty’ verdicts in respect of charges of conspiring to pervert justice for Mrs Atkinson and perverting justice against Hanvey, who is from the Derryanvil Road in Portadown.

Although Mr Hedworth agreed that Atkinson’s guilty plea was on the basis “that this was a cover-up, or attempted cover-up”, he paused when Judge Lynch asked him whether it was further accepted by the PPS that “there is no criminal liability therefore for Mr Atkinson in terms of interfering with the actual investigation into the murder of Mr Hamill”.

He told the court, however, that while the PPS cannot say with certainty what was talked about during the phone call, “there would be an inference that the contents was untoward, but it would be wrong for us to go further than that”.

The charges arose after Robert Hamill was beaten by a loyalist mob on April 27, 1997. His murder was the subject of a public inquiry amid claims four RUC officers were positioned in a police vehicle near the scene of the fatal attack but did not intervene.

Mr Atkinson was one of the officers in the vehicle on the night Mr Hamill was attacked.

Six individuals, including Kenneth Hanvey’s son Allister Hanvey, were charged with the murder.

However, the charges against five of them, including Allister Hanvey, were subsequently withdrawn due to insufficient evidence to prosecute.

The sixth person, Paul Rodney Marc Hobson, was acquitted following a trial, where Constable Atkinson gave evidence.

In court yesterday, Judge Lynch said that, “putting on my juror hat, I’m slightly puzzled” by the prosecution stance regarding the basis of Atkinson’s guilty plea, “because Ms Jones [previously known as Andrea Mckee] did make a positive assertion what the conversation was about”.

Judge Lynch said she had given evidence yesterday stating that her now deceased husband, Michael Mckee, told her that Atkinson told him during a phone conversation that he [Atkinson] had “done something stupid” in that “he had made a call to the Hanvey house and had told Allister to get rid of some of his clothes”.

Mr Hedworth told Judge Lynch that “it would be wrong to reply to that”, and instead highlighted that the witness, described by a previous judge as “an entirely unreliable and utterly unconvincing witness”, was due to be cross-examined and her evidence tested yesterday had the trial proceeded.

In court yesterday, Judge Lynch put to the PPS prosecutor further, however, that the basis of the plea is that Atkinson “made a false statement and induced other people to make a false statement about the provenance of the phone call, and it is accepted that he bears no criminal responsibility for any attempt to interfere with the investigation” into the serious assault and murder of Mr Hamill.

Judge Lynch said when he passes sentence, “I will certainly require clarification”, as that will be the basis upon which he deals with the case.

From a defence perspective, Mr Gibson said the defence would be obtaining and providing medical reports as Atkinson has serious heart problems and has suffered a number of strokes in recent times.

Freeing the pensioner on bail, Judge Lynch adjourned the case for plea and sentence to June 7.