Surviving relatives of 12 victims killed in 1978 IRA firebomb of Belfast hotel challenge existing report by police team
The families of victims killed in an IRA firebomb atrocity have claimed key police files have disappeared in order to protect republicans now at the centre of the peace process.
Relatives of the 12 members of the Irish Collie Club who died in the IRA bomb at La Mon hotel on 17 February 1978 are angry that crucial documents connected to the massacre have been lost.
They also said a police unit investigating the past crimes of Northern Ireland's Troubles - the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) - was lacking in "integrity and morality".
The families, who are represented by an organisation that calls itself Ulster Human Rights Watch, said original transcripts with IRA members who were interviewed about the bombing are missing.
In a statement released on Thursday they claimed: "It would appear to the victims that key documents were removed from the files with the view to protecting IRA members who today may be involved in the peace process at the highest level. This case, in common with other major investigations, appears to show that the will to uncover the truth has been curtailed for fear of destabilising the current political process."
The 12 people killed at La Mon, all Protestants, included three married couples. Twenty-three people were also seriously injured in what witnesses described as a huge fireball tearing through the function room at the east Belfast hotel where the club was holding its annual dinner dance.
During the Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation into the bombing, 35 people, mostly members of the Provisional IRA, were arrested for questioning.
West Belfast man Robert Murphy was sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter in 1981. He was released in 1995 and died in 2006. A second west Belfast man was acquitted.
The families of those killed recently received an 81-page report from the HET on the original RUC investigation into the bombing.
They challenged the Northern Ireland secretary of the state, Owen Paterson, to establish a public enquiry into the atrocity.
"It is most disturbing that the investigation of an attack, described by the RUC as horrific and indiscriminate mass murder, has been hampered because key documentation has been mislaid," they said.
Their statement added: "Considering the circumstances of this horrendous crime and the certainty of the involvement of the IRA, the victims are appalled by the absence of diligence shown by the RUC/PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] in ensuring the preservation of all information related to this investigation and also calls into question the integrity and thoroughness of the whole historical enquiry process."