Investigation into loyalist murder of Peter Gallagher ‘wholly inadequate'
Peter Gallagher (44), a father-of-seven from Toomebridge, Co Antrim, was shot and fatally wounded by a loyalist gunman as he arrived for work at the Westlink Enterprise Centre in west Belfast shortly before 8am on March 24th.
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The UFF admitted responsibility in a call to BBC.
No one has been convicted in relation to the murder of Mr Gallagher.
Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson outside her office in Belfast. Photo: PA
Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson said her office found that there had been 12 people who should have been of interest to the murder investigation, but none were arrested.
She said some of those were linked by significant, and on occasion corroborative, intelligence and other information.
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She also criticised the police decision to 'cease surveillance of members of the UDA/UFF two days before the murder, given that they had received multiple intelligence and other reports indicating that the group were actively planning attacks'.
It was found that surveillance of the Shankill-road based C Company of the UDA/UFF was paused on March 22nd, with resources reallocated in response to intelligence about Provisional IRA activity.
Both Mr Gallagher and 17-year-old Damien Walsh were killed before surveillance resumed on March 30th.
However, the Police Ombudsman probe found no intelligence that, if acted upon by police, could have prevented Mr Gallagher's murder, and neither was there any evidence that security forces provided information to paramilitaries to facilitate the attack.
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Mrs Anderson found the initial police response to Mr Gallagher's murder had been appropriate and comprehensive in nature, with a pistol found near the scene and more than 50 statements obtained.
However, she said it was difficult to understand why potential persons of interest were not arrested.
Mrs Anderson noted that the investigation of complaints about historical matters is challenging due to the passage of time and unavailability of relevant witnesses and documentation.
However, she said her investigators had 'gathered substantial evidence and other information during the course of this investigation' and said she was grateful for the co-operation of a number of former police officers who had assisted her inquiries.
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'I believe Mr Gallagher was the innocent victim of a campaign of terror mounted by loyalist paramilitaries against the nationalist community,' she said.
'The UDA/UFF alone were responsible for Mr Gallagher's murder.
'I conclude, however, that the family were failed by a wholly inadequate murder inquiry and in particular the failure to link the murder of Damien Walsh to that of their loved one.'
The victims group Relatives for Justice (RFJ) welcomed the ombudsman's report.
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'We are privileged to have supported the Gallagher family in this long and challenging journey for truth and accountability,' they said.
'While the report sheds some light on the circumstances surrounding Peter's murder, it also highlights the scale and depth of state failure.
'What emerges is not closure, but a compelling argument for a full, independent, and human rights-compliant investigation, which the state has so far failed to deliver.
'That this report may be among the last to emerge under the Police Ombudsman's now-dismantled powers is a sobering thought. The Legacy Act has shut down future investigations, closed hundreds of similar cases, and sent a clear message to families: the truth will not be tolerated.
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'The Gallagher family's long campaign reflects the experience of so many across the North – families failed not just once by the violence that took their loved ones, but again and again by the state's refusal to investigate and to tell the truth.
'RFJ stands with the Gallagher family and all families who continue to fight for justice.
'This report is not the end. It must be the basis for further action which the family will now actively consider.'
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