The PSNI Chief Constable has pledged to do all that he can to give the families of the Kingsmills Massacre victims “the answers they crave”.
Jon Boutcher was speaking after the Police Ombudsman concluded that failings in the RUC investigation into the Kingsmills atrocity – including the failure to arrest suspects linked by intelligence to the attack – took place against a backdrop of ‘wholly insufficient’ resources.
In a report published today (April 29), Marie Anderson recognised the ‘intense pressure and strain’ that RUC officers faced in 1976, when investigating one of the worst atrocities of the Troubles when ten men were murdered.
As well as identifying the failure to arrest and interview 11 men identified by intelligence, the Police Ombudsman also found that the original investigation failed to exploit ballistic links with other attacks in which the same weapons were used. There were also missed investigative opportunities and inadequacies in areas such as forensics, fingerprints and palm prints, and witness enquiries.
The 10 Protestant workers were murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) when the minibus taking them home from work at ‘Glenanne Mill’ was stopped by a group of armed men on the Kingsmills Road, County Armagh, on 5 January 1976.
One passenger, identified as a Catholic, was told to leave and the remaining 11 men were shot multiple times. Only one man, Alan Black, survived.
The murders were said to have been in retaliation for loyalist paramilitary attacks carried out the day before on the Reavey and O’Dowd families which resulted in the deaths of six people.
The Chief Constable has been responding to the Police Ombudsman’s public statement on Kingsmills.
CC Boutcher said: “First and foremost our thoughts today are with the families and loved ones of those killed and injured in this awful attack.
“I want to acknowledge the pain and suffering that they all continue to feel. Their unimaginable suffering has been compounded by the lack of the fulsome and effective investigation that everyone would want and that they deserve.
“The Police Ombudsman has concluded that the failings identified in the RUC investigation took place against a backdrop of what she describes as ‘wholly insufficient’ resources to deal with an enquiry the size of the Kingsmills investigation, a situation exacerbated by a backdrop of multiple terrorist attacks in the South Armagh and South Down areas that overwhelmed the already limited investigative resources.
“Areas of the report make for uncomfortable reading and I note the failings the Police Ombudsman has identified in the original investigation.
“It is important to note that the Ombudsman found no intelligence that could have forewarned of, or allowed police to prevent, the murders nor did it identify any intelligence that indicated a direct threat to any of the deceased or injured.
“The families and loved ones of those targeted in this attack have to live with the consequences every day. I am determined to do all I can to provide these remarkable families with the acknowledgement they deserve and the answers they crave.”
In reporting her findings, Ombudsman Marie Anderson emphasised that police officers who attended the scene immediately after the attack were “faced with one of the worst terrorist incidents to occur in the Troubles” and “conducted themselves in a professional manner, identifying witnesses, recovering evidence, and conducting other enquiries in the area”.
She also recognised “the intense pressure and strain” that the RUC and its officers were under in 1976, the second worst year of The Troubles in respect of fatalities.
“By today’s standards, the investigative resources available were wholly insufficient to deal with an enquiry the size of the Kingsmills investigation,” she said. “The situation was exacerbated by a backdrop of multiple terrorist attacks in the South Armagh and South Down areas that stretched the already limited investigative resources available even further.
“The detective leading the investigation had a team of eight to assist him in investigating ten murders and an attempted murder, which was supplemented for only a matter of weeks by two teams of about eight to ten detectives from the RUC’s Regional Crime Squad. This was entirely inadequate.”
Against this backdrop, the Police Ombudsman identified a number of investigative failings, leading her to conclude that complaints in relation to the conduct of the original police investigation were in large part “legitimate and justified”.
Related: Failings in RUC Kingsmills investigation which had ‘wholly insufficient resources’
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