RUC Probed Over 80s Derry Flat Blast

An IRA bomb attack in which three innocent neighbours died is to be the subject of a probe by the NI Police Ombudsman.

However, those who planted the bomb in the Derry outrage from over two decades ago are not to be the subject of the investigation, rather detectives were last week in Londonderry to uncover the truth about how the RUC handled the booby trap bomb which killed three people in Creggan in 1988.

The investigation has been launched following complaints over how the RUC dealt with the device after it was left to attack security forces at a flat in Kildrum Gardens.

Sean Dalton, 55, and Sheila Lewis, 60, died in the blast while Gerard Curran died from his injuries the following year.

Investigators conducted interviews at the Healthy Living Centre at Central Drive throughout a full day in the city last week.

The IRA had kidnapped a man and booby-trapped his flat, anticipating that it would be searched by RUC or Army personnel. Instead the three victims, who had noticed their neighbour's absence for several days, went to the man's flat.

The bomb detonated as Mr Dalton opened the front door from the inside, having climbed through a window of the first floor maisonette flat. The flat was completely demolished in the blast.

It is alleged the police were aware it had been booby-trapped but that the bomb had been left in place to protect an informant.

In related news, Ulster Unionist MLA Basil McCrea has said that the current police force, the PSNI "do not have the financial resources to pay for cold cases within its budget".

The NI Policing Board member said: "It is impossible for the PSNI to keep policing the past when trying to deal with a severe dissident republican threat and tackling all other current crimes."

"I believe funding for historical inquests and inquiries is going to have to come from another budget - the PSNI does not have the manpower or the finances to do what people want done.

"These are really expensive inquests and inquiries and the specialist personnel is not available. If people want this then the funding is going to have to be found," he said.

However, the NI Police Ombudsman officers are operating under separate funding arrangements and while not looking at the terrorists who killed the three people, are instead investigating those who policed the horrific incident.

(BMcC/GK)