The sister of a Co Tyrone man has accused British government of protecting state killers after it ruled out holding a public inquiry into four sectarian murders of four Catholic in Co Tyrone more than 30 years ago.
Angela McKearney was speaking after Secretary of State Hillary Benn rejected a request for a public inquiry into the murder of her brother Kevin McKearney and uncle Jack McKearney in January 1992.
Mr Benn has also turned down a request for an inquiry into the LVF murder of Fergal McCusker in Maghera, Co Derry, in January 1998.
Kevin McKearney died instantly during an attack at a butcher’s shop in Moy while Jack died later in hospital.
Months later, Charlie Fox (63) and his wife Tess (53) were gunned down in their home, near Moy.
Their daughter Bernie was married to Kevin McKearney.
Collusion is strongly suspected in both cases and during inquest hearings suspects were identified, including notorious loyalist commanders and suspected state agents Robin ‘The Jackal’ Jackson and Billy Wright.
Both inquests, which opened last year and were originally linked, were subject Public Interest Immunity (PII) applications.
PII applications are made when state agencies do not want information placed in the public domain.
During the inquest, a coroner was forced to abandon plans to provide a gist, or limited summary, of sensitive information linked to the case after objections were received from MI5 and the Northern Ireland Office, which at the time was headed by Conservative Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris.
The inquest was later halted.
Relatives of the dead recently met with Labour Secretary of State Hillary Benn, however, he has since rejected their call for a public inquiry.
The decision comes days after he also refused a similar inquiry into the 1997 murder of GAA official Sean Brown.
It emerged last week that a public inquiry will be held into the 1989 murder of solicitor Pat Finucane.
Kevin McKearney’s sister Angela McKearney has now asked “what are the state so afraid to reveal”?
“It seems clear that the state still to this day protects their state agents, those guilty of murder, at the expense of the victims,” she said.
“The state should stop hiding behind national security and give us the truth.
“We will continue our campaign for justice and now move for an urgent judicial review against the decision of the Secretary of state.”
His widow Bernie McKearney said her family is “not giving up” adding that they will not engage with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR), which was established by the British government.
“Our inquest was stopped by the coroner and a public inquiry was recommended,” she said.
“We want our inquiry and are not accepting a lesser body like the ICRIR.”
While the new Labour government has said it intends to repeal and replace the Legacy Act, which came into force in May, it intends to retain the ICRIR.
Solicitor Gavin Booth of Phoenix Law said the McKearney and Fox families “do not accept that the ICRIR is capable of discharging the states obligation to their family”.
“The family has no faith in this body and no amount of window dressing will change this families view and the view of all legacy families of the ICRIR,” he said.
“The secretary of state should now abolish the ICRIR.”
The inquest into Mr McCusker’s death was also halted due to a refusal by state bodies to provide information.
A coroner later asked that a public inquiry be established.
Solicitor Pádraig Ó Muirigh, of Ó Muirigh solicitors, said it was a “matter of grave concern to the family and the wider Maghera community that this inquest has been compromised”.
He added that the inquest coroner “reached his decision after examining all the sensitive material in its unreacted format and concluded he could no longer discharge his duties”.
“The fact that the British secretary of state has ignored this judicial request is a matter of great concern,” he added.
A spokeswoman for the NIO said: “The secretary of state carefully considered a range of factors in reaching this decision, including the families’ views, the coroner’s ruling, the government’s human rights obligations, and important public interest factors.
“He expressed his enormous sympathy for the families, and encouraged them to meet with Sir Declan Morgan to hear how the Independent Commission on Reconciliation and Information Recovery would approach an investigation into the deaths of their loved ones.”
Meanwhile, Relatives for Justice, the Pat Finucane Centre and Justice for the Forgotten are planning to hold a joint protest at the High Court in Belfast on Friday where judgment is expected in a legal challenge against the Legacy Act.
The campaign groups have called for the Legacy Act and ICRIR to be scrapped.
