Press
Press Notice 26
Inquiry Report25th February 2011
The Inquiry Chairman, Sir Edwin Jowitt, has advised the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP, that the Inquiry Panel has fulfilled its Terms of Reference and has completed its Report.
In December 2010, the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland announced that it would commence criminal proceedings against three individuals on charges of perverting the course of justice.
The Inquiry Report will not be published until the conclusion of those legal proceedings and the Inquiry will retain formal custody of the Report until that point.
The Report has therefore been placed in a secure independent location.
Editors’ notes:
1. The PPS reached its conclusion, referred to in this press notice, after carrying out a review of a previous decision by the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions to discontinue proceedings against certain persons arising from the circumstances of the death of Robert Hamill. The review was carried out as a result of the Robert Hamill Inquiry’s interim report which was published on 12th March 2010.
2. The Inquiry’s terms of reference are:
To inquire into the death of Robert Hamill with a view to determining whether any wrongful act or omission by or within the Royal Ulster Constabulary facilitated his death or obstructed the investigation of it, or whether attempts were made to do so; whether any such act or omission was intentional or negligent; whether the investigation of his death was carried out with due diligence; and to make recommendations.
3. The Chairman of the Inquiry is Sir Edwin Jowitt, a retired Justice for the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division. The other members of the Inquiry Panel are Sir John Evans (former President of the Association of Chief Police Officers and retired Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Constabulary) and Reverend Baroness Richardson of Calow (Moderator of he Churches’ Commission for Inter Faith Relations).
4. The Inquiry was established on 16 November 2004 when the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Paul Murphy, announced the terms of reference for the inquiry into the death of Robert Hamill following an incident in Portadown, County Armagh on 27 April 1997.
