The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has stated that her office was "unable to conclude definitively" on allegations that functional firearms were returned to paramilitary weapon caches during covert policing operations, and were subsequently used to murder police officers and a civilian.

The extensive investigation was initiated following two referrals from the PSNI and two public complaints concerning these issues.

The police referrals focused on statements made by a former RUC Special Branch officer and a former civilian staff member attached to the Weapons and Explosives Research Centre (WERC). Both men alleged that WERC had tested, and then returned, live weapons to paramilitary control, and that these guns were later used in the murder of police officers. The television documentary reporting on the police officer's statement identified the victims as Constables Harold Beckett and Gary Meyer, who were killed on June 30, 1990.

Due to ballistic links, the investigation also reviewed the murder of James Henry Babington on October 4, 1989, and a complaint from Constable Beckett's daughter regarding the RUC investigation into her father's death.

Police Ombudsman, Mrs Marie Anderson, clarified one key finding: "My investigation has established that the weapons referred to in the statements by the former police officer and former WERC employee were not those used in the murders of Constable Beckett and Constable Meyer."

However, Mrs Anderson added: "However, in light of the available evidence and intelligence, it has not been possible to conclude definitively on whether WERC had any involvement in the weapons which were used in their murders."

The first referral, arising from a 2015 BBC Spotlight programme, described a former WERC police officer's account that two handguns were removed from a Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) arms hide, tested at WERC, and then returned for monitoring. The officer alleged these guns were later used to murder two police officers. Ombudsman investigators established that this officer was attached to WERC between 1980 and 1984, and therefore was not present when Constables Beckett and Meyer were killed in 1990. Efforts to interview the officer were unsuccessful, as he died before the investigation was concluded. The second referral stemmed from statements made by a former civilian WERC scientific officer to the Stevens Enquiry, claiming that in the early 1990s, Special Branch officers provided him with two 9mm Browning pistols recovered from a paramilitary hide, instructing him to deactivate only one. He later received spent cases from the scene of a police officer's murder—which he believed occurred near the Europa Hotel—and confirmed the cases matched the gun he had been told not to deactivate.

Police Ombudsman investigators could not definitively link either of the men's accounts to the specific murders of Constables Beckett and Meyer, or to any of the other nine police officer murders reviewed in Belfast city centre between 1980 and 1992.

Investigative Failings Identified

The Police Ombudsman did find significant investigative failures in the initial RUC inquiries into the civilian and police murders.

• Regarding James Henry Babington (Killed October 4, 1989):

The investigation into Mr Babington's death was found to have been prompt and thorough initially.

However, the Ombudsman found that two people, identified in intelligence and witness evidence, should have been considered suspects but were not subject to recorded investigative action.

There were also "missed forensic opportunities," including the destruction of a suspect's jacket with dried human blood specks after the suspect was "eliminated from enquiries" without a recorded rationale.

The Ombudsman believes that the RUC investigation into Mr Babington's murder was incomplete.

• Regarding Constables Harold Beckett and Gary Meyer (Killed June 30, 1990):

The RUC investigation was generally "well resourced, well managed and conducted without any delay."

However, the Ombudsman found failures in the non-dissemination of intelligence by Special Branch to the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO).

Furthermore, limited or no action was taken on some pieces of intelligence that named individuals allegedly involved in the murders, including information provided by the military that a person had witnessed the murders and knew the gunmen by name.

The Police Ombudsman concluded: "I am of the view that the investigative failings in this case are so significant that it was incapable of leading to the apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators, and therefore, was not Article 2 compliant."

Final Conclusion

Mrs Anderson noted that the covert policing activities of WERC were intended to save lives, but that the aim of returning 'live' weapons was to protect the source of those weapons.

She concluded that based on the intelligence reviewed: "there was no intelligence that, if acted upon, would have been capable of preventing the murders of Henry Babington and Constables Beckett and Meyer."

She unequivocally stated that PIRA alone was responsible for the murders, viewing all three men as innocent victims of a republican paramilitary campaign. The Ombudsman was also critical of the RUC for disposing of weapons linked to these unsolved murders.