|
The Barron Inquiry - Draft Terms of Reference for Inquiry - A Fresh Inquest - 2005 Inquest Account - BIRW Report - Witness Account - Ludlow Family Account - Sunday World report May 1976 - Meeting the Police Ombudsman - Ed Moloney Radio Interview - 25th Anniversary - Profile - Questions - Photographs - Press Release - Letter to RUC - Magill article 1999 - Press Coverage - Barron Report Published - Ludlow Family Response to Barron Report - Download the Barron Report from the Oireachtas website (pdf file) - Statement from Justice for the Forgotten - Joint Oireachtas Committee Request for Submissions - Joint statement from Justice for the Forgotten, Relatives for Justice and the Pat Finucane Centre - Download Transcript of Ludlow family meeting with Oireachtas Sub-Committee (Word file) Original Ludlow Family website - Second Ludlow Family website - The Dundalk Bombing The Belfast Telegraph, 22 February 2006: Killer
gang will evade justice: relatives By Michael McHugh 21 February 2006 The family of loyalist murder victim Seamus Ludlow have accepted that no prosecution will ever be brought against his killers - and have called for a public inquiry into the failure of the police investigation. Their legal representative Deidre Murphy told an Irish parliamentary hearing in Dublin today that it was unlikely that those behind the shooting of the 47-year-old Dundalk forestry worker 30 years ago would ever be brought to justice. Mr Ludlow was picked up as a random victim of four North Down loyalists who shot him dead and abandoned him near his home. Nobody has ever been charged with the murder despite Garda investigators learning the identity of four suspects in 1979. Representatives of the family said the prospects for a successful prosecution were "remote". "I think it should be clear from the outset that the family is not asking for an investigation into the murder. The family are satisfied that they know who killed Seamus Ludlow," Ms Murphy said. "They know that it is highly unlikely that anybody would ever be brought to justice. "The justice system will not be able to deal with the perpetrators of this murder and it is because of the actions of the authorities in this state in relation to the investigation." The lawyer said she did not know why the Garda investigation had been stopped despite the RUC passing on the suspects identities in February 1979. RUC detectives did interview the suspects in the late 1990s but, despite admissions made by two of them, a decision was taken by the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions not to continue with the case. She added that only a public inquiry would resolve questions surrounding the non-interview of the suspects as well as the loss of vital evidence and who took the decision to refuse permission to investigating officer John Courtney to travel to Northern Ireland to interview the suspects. Justice Henry Barron produced a report on the killing which is the basis of the Dail's Justice Committee hearing. Earlier hearings into similar past killings like the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in the early 1970s have resulted in a tribunal of inquiry which is held in private in which the Ludlow family have warned against. Legal representatives of the family also referred to evidence given by Justice Barron last week which suggested that one of the suspects in the Ludlow murder may have been known to gardai in the weeks before the killing but added that only a public inquiry with full powers to demand the attendance of witnesses would be able to probe the matter. The family have been campaigning for the last decade for a public inquiry and their lobbying contributed to a decision by the Irish Justice Department to review the original investigation and led to Justice Barron's report. I Top I Download the Barron Report from the Oireachtas website (pdf file) SUPPORT THE SEAMUS LUDLOW APPEAL FUND Bank of Ireland 78 Clanbrassil Street Dundalk County Louth IrelandAccount No. 70037984 Thank You.
|