Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fresh hearing into loyalist mob killing
Robert Hamill mother wins murder probe challenge
A DECISION to halt the prosecution of three people on charges linked to the loyalist mob killing of Robert Hamill is to be quashed, High Court judges have ruled.
They ordered a new hearing to determine if an ex-policeman and two others should face trial for an alleged attempt to obstruct the course of justice.
Yesterday’s verdict came in a legal bid by the murder victim’s mother Jessica Hamill to have charges reinstated.
Her 25-year-old son was attacked in Portadown, Co Armagh, in 1997.
The Catholic man never regained consciousness and died in hospital.
RUC officers in the area at the time have been accused of failing to intervene in the assault on Mr Hamill. Former police reserve constable Robert Atkinson and his wife Eleanor Atkinson, both 63 and with an address at Brownstown Road, Portadown, had been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in connection with the investigation into the killing.
Similar claims were made against Kenneth Hanvey, 65, of Derryanvil Road in the town.
All three defendants denied the allegations. In
September 2014 a judge at Craigavon Magistrates Court refused to return the trio for trial after ruling a key prosecution witness was unreliable and unconvincing.
Mrs Hamill’s legal team challenged that determination, arguing it was irrational.
They claimed the district judge failed to consider all of the evidence against the defendants
Ruling on the challenge, Lord Justice Stephens said: “We quash the decision dated September 3, 2014.
“We remit this case with a direction that the preliminary inquiry commence afresh before another judge who should feel free to make decisions on the basis of the evidence without regard to any conclusions previously reached.”