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UK “failed to protect murdered Northern Ireland lawyer”

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Summary of story from Reuters, May 23, 2011

As reported yesterday on WVoN, the public inquiry into the death of Rosemary Nelson, a prominent Catholic lawyer murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland 12 years ago, has finally published its findings.

The earlier report from the BBC emphasised the inquiry conclusion that state agencies did not directly collude with loyalists.

Reuters, on the other hand, focused on the finding that the government failed to take reasonable steps to protect her life.

Solicitor Rosemary Nelson, a 40-year-old married mother of two, was killed by a bomb planted underneath her BMW car which exploded as she left her home in the Northern Irish county of Armagh in March 1999.

Her murder was claimed in the name of a loyalist group, the Red Hand Defenders — but it also sparked immediate claims of security force collusion in the killing.

She had received numerous death threats and a public inquiry report into her death said “there were omissions by state agencies which rendered her more at risk and more vulnerable.”

The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) — now replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) — was accused of “a corporate failure” to warn Nelson of her vulnerability and to offer security advice.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) was accused of not pressing the RUC hard enough for full replies to their questions concerning Nelson’s personal security.

Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson said he was ”profoundly sorry” that “omissions by the state” had put her “more at risk and more vulnerable.”

But he told parliament the inquiry had found “no evidence of any act by or within any of the state agencies … which directly facilitated” her killing.

The 505-page report stated “the combined effect of these omissions by the RUC and the NIO was that the state failed to take reasonable and proportionate steps to safeguard the life of Rosemary Nelson.”

It added: “If (she) had been given advice about her safety and offered security measures, then assuming that she had accepted such advice and security measures, the risk to her life and her vulnerability would have been reduced.”

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