[A-List] UK state: Northern Ireland

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Ulster Stevens report delayed

Nick Hopkins, crime correspondent
Thursday October 24, 2002
The Guardian

A large-scale report expected to elaborate on widespread collusion between
the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland has been
delayed until the spring, the Metropolitan police announced yesterday.

Sir John Stevens, the Met commissioner, said that he needed more time to
complete his investigation, which focuses on the murder of the Belfast
solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.

He had hoped to publish the report in November.

"It is important that these matters are pursued and I am determined that
this report will be absolutely thorough," added Sir John yesterday. "It
would be wrong to deliver the findings of this lengthy and complex
investigation prematurely."

The inquiry was launched three years ago. It was drawn into the murky world
of undercover operations being conducted by the police and the army's elite
Force Research Unit. The FRU was responsible for recruiting and running
double agents within the terrorist groups.

The head of the FRU in 1989 was Colonel Gordon Kerr; he was promoted to
brigadier after serving in Northern Ireland, and is now the British military
attaché in Beijing.

Yesterday, Mr Finucane's widow, Geraldine, said that she feared the delay
might be linked to the political crisis now surrounding Northern Ireland.

She added: "I am confident that Sir John Stevens is doing a thorough job,
but I am afraid the report is being manipulated, perhaps because they feel
the time is not right at the moment for it to be published. Perhaps that is
why they are delaying - because of the fall of the political institutions."

The Met is expected to interview Brig Kerr before finishing its report.