SAOIRSE32

BBC
6 Jan 09

Virtual reality technology will be used to investigate allegations that police failed to protect a Catholic man beaten to death in a sectarian attack.

Robert Hamill, 25, was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in Portadown in 1997. No-one was convicted of the killing.

Monitors showing a virtual scene in Portadown town centre where Robert Hamill was murdered

It was claimed Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers in a Land Rover nearby failed to intervene.

The inquiry’s hearings will begin next Tuesday, with a final report expected by the middle of next year.

The Robert Hamill Inquiry will examine whether “any wrongful act or omission by or within the Royal Ulster Constabulary facilitated his death or obstructed the investigation of it”.

Officials unveiled facilities at the Interpoint Centre in Belfast where 160 witnesses - including the police officers at the centre of the allegations - will give evidence with the help of a computerised virtual reality reconstruction of the scene where the attack took place.

The human rights group British-Irish Rights Watch has campaigned over the case and on Tuesday its director Jane Winter said the inquiry was important to all those who had been targeted because of their religion.

Robert Hamill - pic PA
Robert Hamill was beaten to death in the centre of Portadown

Robert Hamill was beaten to death in the centre of Portadown

“Robert Hamill’s death was similar to many others in that he was a victim of sectarianism,” she said.

“I don’t believe that the people who attacked him knew who he was, but because of where he was coming from and the direction he was walking in, they knew he was Catholic.

“He was a victim of the ‘any Catholic will do’ attitude.”

She said allegations that police officers from the then RUC at the scene failed to save Mr Hamill and subsequently frustrated the search for the truth must be thoroughly examined.

“It is important that the truth is established,” said Ms Winter.

“It will speak to many other victims of sectarian attacks.”

The technology to be used in the inquiry is the same as that used in the Saville Inquiry, which examined the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry.

A computer image recreates the street scene as it was at the time of the attack on Mr Hamill, allowing witnesses a full panoramic view of the area, the surrounding streets and the position of the police Land Rover from where officers are said to have witnessed the fatal assault.

The RUC denied the allegations levelled against its officers.

In 2004 the Government announced plans for a public inquiry into Mr Hamill’s murder following a review of a number of cases by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory, but legal issues delayed the public hearings until now.

In November Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward announced he would not be extending the terms of reference of the inquiry despite appeals by the bereaved family.

Leading counsel to the inquiry Ashley Underwood QC will lead the questioning of witnesses in an investigation which has so far cost £18.8m, but which officials estimate will have a final bill of £36m.

The Hamill family will be represented by Barra McGrory QC, while the Police Service of Northern Ireland will be represented by Richard Ferguson QC.

The inquiry will be chaired by former English High Court judge Sir Edwin Jowitt, who will be assisted by former chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Constabulary Sir John Evans and moderator of the Churches’ Commission for Inter Faith Relations the Rev Kathleen Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow.

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor
Irish News
7 Jan 09

THE INQUIRY into the 1997 murder of Robert Hamill, of which public hearings begin in Belfast next Tuesday, is convinced it will establish the truth behind the killing of the 25-year-old Portadown Catholic.

The inquiry team plans to complete its final report by the middle of next year and to operate within a projected budget of £36 million (€39.8 million).

It has devised a “virtual reality” computerised model of the area in Portadown where he was attacked to assist witnesses and lawyers.

Mr Hamill was beaten senseless in Portadown town centre by a loyalist mob in April 1997 as he returned home from a night out with friends. Some of his attackers cried, “Die you Fenian bastard,” as they assaulted him, witnesses reported. He died 11 days later in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast with his partner Caroline by his bedside. The couple had two young boys, Shane and Ryan. Three months after he died their daughter Nicole was born.

Members of the extended Hamill family pressed for the inquiry because they believed the RUC seriously and in some instances wilfully mishandled the investigation into the sectarian killing, and believed Mr Hamill could have been saved if RUC officers sitting in a police Land Rover near the murder scene had intervened.

Former northern secretary Paul Murphy set up the inquiry following the recommendation of Canadian Judge Peter Cory. The inquiry, chaired by former English high court judge, Sir Edwin Jowitt, formally opened in May 2005. The two other members of the inquiry panel are the Rev Baroness (Kathleen) Richardson, moderator of the Free Churches Council of England and Wales, and Sir John Evans, former chief constable of Devon and Cornwall police.

Since May 2005 the inquiry team has collated over 20,000 documents, conducted “in-house interviews” with more than 230 witnesses and set out in detail how the public hearings should proceed from next Tuesday at the Interpoint Centre in Belfast.

No one has been convicted of the killing, notwithstanding allegations by members of the Hamill family that it is widely known in Portadown who was involved in the assault, and that some of these people allegedly taunted the family about the killing.

Ashley Underwood QC, leading counsel to the inquiry, said yesterday that some 160 witnesses would give evidence. “I believe that when the inquiry is completed we will have established the truth behind the killing of Robert Hamill,” he said.

Of the witnesses, 50 will have paid-for legal representation. In all 11 legal teams will be involved. A feature of the inquiry is a computerised model of the area in central Portadown where Robert Hamill was assaulted, which will provide a “virtual reality view of the scene from any direction or viewpoint”. It was created by one of the technical experts working with the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

While the overall cost of the Bloody Sunday, Rosemary Nelson, Billy Wright, and Robert Hamill inquiries - estimated currently at £250 million, with most of that due to the Bloody Sunday probe - has generated political and public concern, the Hamill team believes it will complete its work relatively promptly and on budget.

So far the inquiry has cost £18.8 million, with final cost estimated at £36 million. The inquiry plans to have the public hearings finished by May, with final submissions in the autumn. Thereafter the panel will devise its report, which it hopes to have completed by the middle of 2010.

Among the allegations that the inquiry will consider are: that the RUC failed to intervene even though police were in a Land Rover close to the scene; that an RUC officer told a suspect how to destroy evidence that could connect him to the killing, and briefed him on how the investigation was proceeding; that police failed to maintain the assault scene and did not detain suspects on the night; that in a number of other areas police were seriously deficient in their investigations; and that the RUC also issued a series of contradictory statements about the killing, initially suggesting that Mr Hamill died as a result of a confrontation between opposing nationalists and loyalists, but eventually conceding that he was the innocent victim of a sectarian loyalist assault.

Belfast Media

West Belfast MP Gerry Adams joins the Belfast Media Group team of bloggers this week with his new ‘Léargas’ (Irish for ‘view’ or ‘perspective’) blog.

In his debut blog, the Sinn Féin President reflects on the political comings and goings of 2008 and turns his gaze to the invasion of Gaza. “It is no accident that these attacks occurred in the last weeks of the Bush presidency.” he writes. “The Israeli assertion that its operations are in response to Hamas’ rocket attacks is threadbare. The rocket attacks should cease. Israeli citizens, like Palestinian citizens have the right to live in peace. The rocket attacks also play into the hands of the militarists on the Israeli side. The timing of their current offensive is directly linked, in my opinion, to Barak Obama’s move into the White House on January 20. It comes after a lengthy embargo on Gaza and the closing of border crossing. Those responsible seem to be about making sure that the ongoing crisis in the Middle East is the new US Presidents first foreign policy test.”

The Adams’ blog will be reprinted in the Belfast Media Group’s weekly newspapers and, monthly, in the Irish Echo, Irish America’s biggest-selling newspaper. Said publisher Máirtín Ó Muilleoir. “We’re delighted to have Gerry Adams join our team of bloggers and look forward to his lively and incisive contributions to the political debate in 2009.”

To access Gerry Adams’ blog, go to www.belfastmedia.com/blogs.

By David Gordon
Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday, 7 January 2009

A former policeman will have his own legal team at the public inquiry into the murder of Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill, which opens next week.

Diane Hamill with a picture of her murdered brother Robert Hamill, who was beaten to death in a sectarian attack in Portadown in 1997

Ex-reserve constable Robert Atkinson had a charge against him of perverting the course of justice dropped in 2004.

Mr Atkinson denied tipping off a suspect in the murder case through a telephone call, and the criminal charge was withdrawn at court.

It has been officially confirmed that he will be one of the legally-represented interested parties at the inquiry, as will the Hamill family and the PSNI.

The interested parties will each be represented a QC and a junior counsel.

Mr Hamill died from injuries sustained in a sectarian attack in Portadown town centre in April 1997.

The inquiry, which opens in Belfast next Tuesday, will examine allegations that the 25-year-old Catholic could have been saved had police intervened at the scene. The police have denied these claims.

Mr Atkinson and three other officers were stationed in a Land Rover in the area at the time.

The public inquiry will also scrutinise a collusion allegation relating to the subsequent murder investigation. This issue was detailed in a 2004 Government-commissioned report by Canadian judge Peter Cory. Judge Cory said it was alleged that a police officer had telephoned a suspect on the morning after the Hamill attack, warning him to destroy clothes he had been wearing.

The policeman was only named as “Reserve Constable B” in the judge’s report, but was identified as Robert Atkinson in court proceedings that same year.

He and his wife Eleanor had been accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The charges against them were dropped in March 2004, with prosecutors admitting that the credibility of a key witness had been undermined.

The case stemmed from telephone records showing that a call had been made from the couple’s home to the suspect’s address on the morning after the attack, the judge noted.

They maintained that another couple who had stayed at their house that night had made the call. The other couple backed up this account initially, but later pleaded guilty to the perversion of justice.

Judge Cory’s report also stated that the reserve constable and the suspect had known each other through a Tae Kwon Do martial arts club.

He also stated that the allegations against Reserve Constable B were “so serious as to warrant the holding of a public inquiry” by themselves.

Virtual reconstruction created of murder scene

A virtual reality reconstruction of the scene of the Robert Hamill murder attack has been produced for the public inquiry.

The computer-generated 3D images show the Portadown town centre location in 1997, as well as surrounding streets and the RUC Land Rover where four officers were stationed.

They have been produced through the same IT technology used to provide reconstruction scenes during the Bloody Sunday Tribunal.

Some 160 people are scheduled to testify to the Robert Hamill inquiry over the next six months. A further 40 witness statements are due to be read out during the hearings.

The proceedings are due to be completed by the end of the year, with the aim of a final report being issued in mid-2010.

Its hearings will be held at the Interpoint centre at York Street in Belfast city centre.