A watchdog report into the Kingsmill Massacre has identified a series of failings in the original police investigation of the IRA atrocity, including a “wholly insufficient” deployment of resources to catch the killers.
Ten Protestant men were shot dead outside the village of Kingsmill in Co Armagh in January 1976 when republican gunmen posing as British soldiers ordered them off a minibus on their way home from work.
The killers asked the occupants of the bus their religion before opening fire.
The only Catholic on board was ordered to run away before the sectarian shooting started.
Of the 11 Protestants who remained on the roadside, one man, Alan Black, survived, despite being shot 18 times.
No-one has ever been convicted of the murders.
Mr Black, who is now in his early 80s, attended the offices of Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland Marie Anderson in Belfast on Tuesday to receive her long-awaited report into one of the most notorious atrocities of the Troubles.
He was accompanied by relatives of John McConville, one of the 10 men who died.
Ms Anderson examined the original Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) investigation into the crime following complaints by bereaved relatives and Mr Black.
She concluded that their complaints were in large part “legitimate and justified”.
The ombudsman recognised the “intense pressure and strain” facing RUC officers in 1976.
Notwithstanding that context, she identified a series of failings in the investigation, including a failure to arrest and interview suspects and a failure to exploit ballistic links with other attacks in which the same weapons were used.
She said there were also missed investigative opportunities and inadequacies in areas such as forensics, fingerprints and palm prints, and witness inquiries.
Ms Anderson added: “By today’s standards, the investigative resources available were wholly insufficient to deal with an inquiry the size of the Kingsmill investigation.
“The situation was exacerbated by a backdrop of multiple terrorist attacks in the South Armagh and South Down areas that stretched the already limited investigative resources available even further.
“The detective leading the investigation had a team of eight to assist him in investigating 10 murders and an attempted murder, which was supplemented for only a matter of weeks by two teams of about eight to 10 detectives from the RUC’s Regional Crime Squad. This was entirely inadequate.”
Some of the families who lodged complaints with the Police Ombudsman made allegations of police collusion in relation to the Kingsmill attack and subsequent investigation.
However, Ms Anderson highlighted that, due to a previous court judgment on the remit of her office, she was not permitted to offer a view in relation to claims of police collusion or collusive behaviours.
Mr Black said he felt “vindicated” by the ombudsman’s report.
“Back in the day, in the ‘70s, a policeman would put on his uniform in the morning not knowing if he’s going to come home that night. So I’ve got nothing but respect for them,” Mr Black told reporters after emerging from Ms Anderson’s offices.
“But this investigation, it points to something like the Keystone Cops and that’s all to do with the police handing their notes to their superiors, who hands them on, who hands them on, who then says ‘No, we can’t go down that road’.”
He added: “We feel totally vindicated in making the complaint and we feel backed up by the ombudsman this far.”
Mr Black said the “death cries of his friends” remained his motivation in continuing to press for justice and truth.
“Every time a door slammed, we tried to open another door with the help of these people here (his legal team), and another door did open,” he said.
“So we just had to keep going and going and going. At times you get very low. But I owe a big debt to the boys that died. I’m not stopping.”
Karen Armstrong, a sister of Mr McConville, questioned why police “walked away” from the investigation.
“I think the point of the matter here is that the ombudsman has totally agreed with everything that we have said in our complaint,” she said.
“It’s all in here (the report), you know, that basic, basic police work wasn’t completed and wasn’t finished.
“We’ve been down this road for a long time and, to be honest, it’s been tough, but we’ve had a lot of time to think, what was the reason behind that? Why did they not even make more of an effort to find out who was responsible for these murders?
“And the answer is, and we’ve had time to think about it, we went through the police files as a family ourselves and scrutinised it, and basically it didn’t happen. They walked away. They walked away from this investigation for reasons that have yet to be made public.”
Asked if the family believed they would ever secure justice, Ms Armstrong added: “The truth really seems to be the hardest thing to get in this country when it comes to these cases, and really at the end of the day my belief is that we’re all answerable, and we will be at some time, you know, whenever we meet a greater force.
“And you just sort of think, well, you know, we will do our bit, we will do as much as we can and we’ll take it from there.”
Barry O’Donnell, a solicitor for Mr Black and the McConville family, insisted there was an “intelligence agenda” involved in protecting those involved in the massacre.
He said the ombudsman had identified a “litany” of investigative failings.
“And if you walked in the shoes of our clients, the only conclusion that you could possibly come to is that at some stage there was an intelligence agenda being rolled out to protect those that were involved in the Kingsmill murders,” he said.
Fellow solicitor Kevin Winters said his clients would now refocus on a stalled High Court civil action related to the attack.
“Today’s findings will really help recalibrate that case,” he said.
The Provisional IRA long denied responsibility for the sectarian killings, with the attack instead claimed by a little-known paramilitary group calling itself the South Armagh Republican Action Force.
That group was long viewed as a front for the IRA, which was supposedly on ceasefire at the time.
Last year, a coroner agreed with that assessment and, delivering his findings in a long-running inquest, ruled that the massacre was an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”.
The 10 men who died were Robert Chambers, 18, John Bryans, 46, Reginald Chapman, 29, Walter Chapman, 35, Robert Freeburn, 50, Joseph Lemmon, 46, John McConville, 20, James McWhirter, 58, Robert Walker, 46, and Kenneth Worton, 24.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher acknowledged the pain of the families and loved ones of the Kingsmill Massacre victims.
“Their unimaginable suffering has been compounded by the lack of the fulsome and effective investigation that everyone would want and that they deserve,” he said.
“The Police Ombudsman has concluded that the failings identified in the RUC investigation took place against a backdrop of what she describes as ‘wholly insufficient’ resources to deal with an enquiry the size of the Kingsmill investigation.
“A situation exacerbated by a backdrop of multiple terrorist attacks in the South Armagh and South Down areas that overwhelmed the already limited investigative resources.
“Areas of the report make for uncomfortable reading and I note the failings the Police Ombudsman has identified in the original investigation.
“It is important to note that the Ombudsman found no intelligence that could have forewarned of, or allowed police to prevent, the murders nor did it identify any intelligence that indicated a direct threat to any of the deceased or injured.
“The families and loved ones of those targeted in this attack have to live with the consequences every day. I am determined to do all I can to provide these remarkable families with the acknowledgement they deserve and the answers they crave.”
