The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has responded to the publication of a report on the 1994 Loughinisland murders by saying that those responsible should be held accountable and evidence should be pursued.
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In a damning 160-page report, Maguire said police had no direct intelligence about the attack in the Heights Bar, but that the murders could have been prevented if information had been shared.
Six men were killed on June 18th, 1994 when UVF gunmen entered The Heights Bar in Loughinisland, and opened fire on customers watching the Republic of Ireland play Italy in a World Cup football match.
In a damning conclusion, the report adds: “I have seen sufficient information to be satisfied that corrupt relationships existed between members of the security forces in South Down and the UVF unit, to whom police attributed the murders at Loughinisland”.
He found that security forces were monitoring the importation bids and information provided by state agents in high positions within the paramilitary groupings helped lead to the recovery of a significant number of the weapons.
Dr Maguire found that one man suspected of carrying out the mass killing was a police informant. These have been heightened by the government’s decades-long failure to properly investigate allegations in cases such as Loughinisland and the arms trafficking operation which supplied the weapons for this and at least 70 murders and attempted murders.
The report also acknowledges that many within the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have worked diligently to investigate the Loughinisland killings.
However, it expresses concern about the approach of some police officers to informants, the information such people were providing, and how the police were choosing to use such information.
Those findings were quashed after a legal challenge by relatives of those killed and Dr Maguire undertook a fresh investigation.
“This report makes uncomfortable reading, particularly in relation to the alleged actions of police officers at the time”, he said.
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The six local men who lost their lives were 39-year-old Eamon Byrne, 34-year-old Adrian Rogan, 35-year-old Patrick O’Hare, 53-year-old Malcolm Jenkinson, 87-year-old Barney Greene and 59-year-old Daniel McCreanor, along with five others who were seriously injured in the shooting. “Everyone is subject to the rule of law”.
