The accuracy of the Independent Monitoring Commission's claim that the murder of Michael O'Hare (36) in March 2003 was paramilitary has been disputed by the PSNI which said this weekend there was no paramilitary involvement in the murder. The IMC claim may lead to the collapse of the case against the man accused of the murder.
O'Hare died after a fire at his flat in Bangor. Two days later, Colin Martin Bell (28) was charged with the murder. The PSNI ruled out paramilitary involvement and the British solicitor general, Harriet Harman, de-scheduled the offence. It is due to be tried in front of a jury at the Crown Court in Downpatrick. Paramilitary murders are tried in non-jury Diplock courts.
However, the solicitor who represents Bell will tomorrow begin proceedings to try to have the trial stopped. "There is a real risk that a jury could be prejudiced by the IMC report and the publicity which has arisen as a result of it," said Joe Rice. "We will be looking for an abuse of process application." Bell is on remand in the non-paramilitary wing of Maghaberry prison. Rice said his client has "psychiatric issues and learning disabilities."
It emerged last week that the IMC had neither consulted the family nor informed them in advance that its report would say the murder was paramilitary. The victim's mother, Angela Noble, said she was "stunned" and "very annoyed" at the claim. "Where did the IMC get this information? The police never said it was paramilitary," she said.
The family's solicitor, Adrian Travers, said the report had caused "considerable distress" to the family, and he is demanding that the IMC reveal the source of its claim. "We are looking at a number of legal options," he said. "In the first instance, we are looking for an explanation."
The PSNI said this weekend it believed the murder may have been sectarian, but that it was not paramilitary. "The family didn't believe it was sectarian," said Travers. "Nor were they led to believe it was. They understood it was treated as a 'routine murder'.
The case raises serious questions about the quality of research carried out by the IMC. "It beggars belief that the IMC could come out with something like this," said Rice. "It is extraordinary that the commissioners were not even aware that the case had been de-scheduled. There was never any suggestion of paramilitary involvement in this. How they could ever have formed the belief that there was, is beyond me." (All NI murders are initially scheduled – those which are non-paramilitary are later de-scheduled.)
The IMC initially refused to comment on the reaction to its report by O'Hare's family. However, following criticism from all four of the North's main political parties, Lord John Alderdice, one of the four men on the IMC, said in a BBC interview that the commission was "saddened" by any hurt it might have caused by "revealing things that hadn't previously been known." (ENDS)
