McGurk’s Bar Massacre: Information Commissioner’s Office Upholds Police Decision To Withhold Fingerprint Evidence

Important Information update on this major Legacy Investigation by Ciarán MacAirt of The Detail. He is a grandson of two of the victims.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has upheld Police Service Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) refusal to release basic information relating to fingerprint evidence police gathered in the aftermath of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre in 1971. The families believe the police have either destroyed the evidence or it relates to named Loyalist agents on its books.

Fifteen civilians including two children were murdered in the no-warning Loyalist bomb attack on McGurk’s Bar on 4th December 1971. Despite forensic and witness evidence – and before the families had even identified all of their loved ones – the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army blamed the victims for the atrocity.

Ciarán MacAirt, a grandson of two of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre victims, raised a simple request for information relating to a fingerprint ledger that proved that the RUC retrieved a number of prints from articles of evidence including two prints from the “car used in explosion Gt. George Street”.

The police did not provide the evidence relating to the discovery of the car and the fingerprints to the Coroner at the original inquest and hid the crucial information from the families for decades.

To compound this police failure, the Office of the Police Ombudsman then deliberately withheld the fingerprint evidence from the families and did not include it in its 2011 Report into the Massacre.

MacAirt asked PSNI three simple Yes/No questions (2 November 2023):

“1. Are these fingerprints in PSNI records today (yes or no)?

2. If not, do we know when they were lost (yes or no)?

3. Were they ever linked to named suspects (yes or no)?”

On 30 January 2024, PSNI replied that it will “neither confirm nor deny” this basic information. It upheld its decision following MacAirt’s request for an Internal Review on 27 February 2024.

PSNI doubled down and informed the families it will “Neither Confirm Nor Deny” (NCND) this basic information due to potential Health and Safety concerns of any living individuals that may be subject to the release of the information.

The ICO informed MacAirt (2 August 2024) that it upholds PSNI’s refusal to release this basic information to the families, specifically due to terms under Data Protection of personal information.

The ICO decision records (paragraph 17):

“… the Commissioner is mindful of his role as data protection regulator. He is satisfied that confirming or denying whether the information is held would result in the disclosure of a third party’s personal data. This is because the requested information, if held, clearly relates to one or more identifiable individuals on the basis that an individual may be identified by their fingerprints. If PSNI denied that it held the requested information it would be stating that it did not hold this personal data.”

MacAirt said:

“I only requested basic information and asked whether RUC or PSNI had linked these prints to the named Loyalists already in police files. I did not ask for the personal information of anyone and a simple yes or no may have sufficed. Either RUC/PSNI linked the prints to the perpetrators, or it did not. Either it still has this crucial evidence or it destroyed it.”

“Our families believe PSNI refuses to hand over this basic information in order to protect police agents that perpetrated the Massacre and bury evidence of a deliberate police cover-up over the last 53 years. Yet again PSNI proves it does not ‘Protect and Serve’ victims but perverts the course of justice to protect its own criminal interests.”

“Britain’s changing of the guard with Chief Constable Jon Boutcher and Secretary of State Hilary Benn means no change for our families. Our battle for truth and justice continues unabated despite the ongoing police cover-up of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre and British attempts to dress up the likes of the ICRIR as a substitute for a human rights-compliant investigation.”

Christopher Stanley of KRW Law LLP, said:

“KRW continues to work with the families of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre to establish the truth about the bombing. This work has included using Freedom of Information as a mechanism for truth recovery and information retrieval. Every request is met with a block tackle refusal and a resultant unjustifiable contest. In this instance the PSNI has responded with a blanket NCND response supported by the FOIA regulator, the ICO.  Health and Safety concerns are cited in material which is over 50 years old.”

“NCND cannot be used in this is blanket manner to deny access to information which may disclose inconvenient truths. The Operation Kenova Interim Report was clear in making the case for a review of the NCND ‘policy’.  With the new Labour Government committed to consultation on Legacy with victims and survivors, independent, transparent, and accountable mechanisms of information retrieval and truth recovery must be established to enable relatives of victims confronted with blank refusals and denials to access information.”

“The contested ICRIR mechanism established by the Legacy Act 2024 has not commanded any confidence given its statutory basis and default control vested in the British Government. That mechanism cannot be simply re-purposed and re-branded – justice, truth and accountability must be achieved in compliance with ECHR standards to afford support and secure recognition from those who have been denied so long.”                                            

Contact

(1) Ciarán MacAirt via email info@mcgurksbar.com; telephone 02895818575

Editor’s Notes

The McGurk’s Bar atrocity, 4h December 1971, resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians including two children, Maria McGurk (14) and James Cromie (13).

Ciarán MacAirt is a grandson of two of the victims. MacAirt’s grandmother, Kathleen Irvine, was murdered in the attack and his grandfather, John, badly injured.

The Attorney General recently ordered new inquests for the victims of the atrocity https://mcgurksbar.com/attorney-general-orders-new-inquests/

The families await another decision from an Information Tribunal against the police https://mcgurksbar.com/mcgurks-anniversary-tribunal-against-police/

Related: General Sir Frank Kitson Implicated in McGurk’s Bar Massacre https://mcgurksbar.com/frank-kitson-implicated-in-mcgurks-bar/

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