"Police failed to properly deal with death threats made against Catholic solicitor Rosemary Nelson before she was murdered, a new inquiry revealed" the Press Association report says.
Shocking findings, but that inquiry was completed by Nuala O'Loan, the then Police Ombudsman back in 2007. She condemned the police for not paying enough attention to death threats, saying they did not do all they could to protect Mrs Nelson. It found that some individual officers were abusive or threatening to her. Yet there was no evidence of active assistance in her murder.
Four years and £46.5 million later we have approximately the same findings from the official Nelson Inquiry. It did not recommend any prosecutions or indeed any action at all. The same litany of dreadful threats and insults against the defence lawyer were recounted and approximately the same conclusions were reached.
It all raises two uncomfortable truths about dealing with troubles murders.
Firstly we may have to accept that, unless someone confesses or turns Queen's evidence, there is a limit to what we can know for certain once the trail has gone cold. The second is that judicial inquiries are not the gold standard of truth recovery which was previously assumed.
Mrs O'Loan did as well with fewer resources than the recent inquiry and the Historical Enquiries Team deals with all the troubles murders in a way that is far quicker and seemingly just as effective.
The fact is that most troubles murders, including the killing of police and army personnel, were unsolved. The victims were often left in harm's way when the risk to their lives could have been reduced.
We need to find a way of accepting these harsh realities. Doing so may help us deal with our painful legacy while troubles survivors are still alive to contribute to the process and find some measure of closure.
Surely now is the time for the British and Irish governments to inaugurate a more comprehensive and effective truth recovery process. It could draw on the files of the HET and the recollection of individuals as well as official and private archives.
