Police last year recorded the worst success rate in almost 30 years of bringing charges against alleged paramilitary killers, it has emerged.
The statistics have put the PSNI's handling of murder investigations, both old and recent cases, under further scrutiny.
Figures released by Security Minister Jane Kennedy in response to a question by Labour MP Kevin McNamara revealed that 2002 was the worst on record in the last 29 years in terms of prosecutions.
Twelve paramilitary murders were committed last year, but charges were only brought in one case – a success rate of just 8.3%.
The sectarian killings of Catholics Daniel McColgan and Gerard Lawlor – murdered a year ago today (Tuesday) – have been added to the bulging list of unsolved murders. The statistics – detailing security-related murders from 1973 to June 9 this year – provide a disturbing picture of prosecutions since the 1994 ceasefires.
Despite a gradual fall in the number of paramilitary killings, there has not been a corresponding increase in the proportion of cases where charges were brought. In almost two out of five murders committed between 1973 and 1994 someone has been charged. This compares to just one out of five murders since then.
There has been much debate over the lack of convictions in paramilitary murders. Observers insist that, given the dramatically changed climate, advanced forensic methods and improved intelligence gathering techniques, it should be easier to charge suspected murderers.
But the police have argued that intelligence is not the same as evidence, paramilitaries have become "experts" in escaping detection, and detectives often encounter a "wall of silence".
SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood said: "The prosecution and conviction rates in the north have been and remain unsatisfactory. The centralisation of murder investigations, the upgrading of crime scene management and the dozens of recommendations of Stevens, Crompton and Blakely reports provide the policing basis for much more success in the future. At the same time, the PSNI must demonstrate fully how it is currently pursuing paramilitary drug operations, loyalist crime, republican counterfeiting and sectarian threat and murder."
A PSNI spokeswoman said the force worked hard to solve all murders, adding: "Over the last three decades we have operated within very difficult legal and security environments and with different resources. However, we are currently recruiting more detectives and we are restructuring to improve the way we investigate serious crime."
Mr McNamara said: "The only way the clear-up rate on sectarian and paramilitary-related crime is going to improve is with full cooperation of all sections of the community with the police and Policing Board."
