Police investigation of 1993 murder ‘wholly inadequate’, says Police Ombudsman
The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has found that the police investigation of the murder of a man in 1993 was “wholly inadequate” and failed his family.
Peter Gallagher, a 44-year-old father of seven from Toomebridge, was shot and fatally wounded by a loyalist gunman while arriving for work at the Westlink Enterprise Centre in west Belfast shortly before 8am on March 24, 1993.
Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson said her investigation of a complaint from Mr Gallagher’s family found that although there were a total of 12 people who should have been of interest to the murder investigation, none were arrested. This was despite some of them being linked by significant, and on occasion corroborative, intelligence and other information, she said.
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.
Within three days of surveillance being paused on March 22, 1993 – when police resources were reallocated in response to intelligence about PIRA activity – the Shankill-based ‘C Company’ unit of the UDA/UFF had murdered Mr Gallagher and, in a separate attack the following day, 17-year-old Damien Walsh.
By the time surveillance of ‘C Company’ members resumed on March 30, 1993, they had also attempted to murder two other people, said the Police Ombudsman.
“I found no evidence that during this time police had reconsidered their decision to cease surveillance of ‘C Company’ members, despite the murders of Mr Gallagher and Damien Walsh, and mounting intelligence about other planned attacks,” said Mrs Anderson.
However, the Police Ombudsman added that her inquiries had found no intelligence that, if acted upon by police, could have prevented Mr Gallagher’s murder. Neither was there any evidence that security forces provided information to paramilitaries to facilitate the attack.
Mr Gallagher was struck multiple times by shots fired from an area of grass behind fencing overlooking the rear of the Westlink Enterprise Centre, and backing onto the nearby dual carriageway.
The UFF admitted responsibility in a call to BBC, and police quickly received information indicating that the attack had been carried out by members of ‘C Company’.
No one has been convicted in relation to either the murder of Mr Gallagher or of Damien Walsh.