Judge wrong to order public inquiry into murder of GAA official, court told
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A judge was wrong in law to order the Government to hold a public inquiry into the murder of a senior gaelic games official during the Troubles, a court has heard. Belfast High Court judge Justice Humphreys “seized the discretion” held by Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn and exercised it himself when he ordered an inquiry into Sean Brown’s death, a Government barrister claimed.
In a Court of Appeal challenge against the ruling, Tony McGleenan KC characterised the judge’s decision as unprecedented, highlighting that there had never been another instance of a court making an order of mandamus compelling the Government to hold a public inquiry.
“There’s not a single example anyone will show you of a court doing that,” he told the Appeal Court judges. Mr Brown, the 61-year-old chairman of Bellaghy Wolfe Tones GAA club in Co Londonderry, was ambushed, kidnapped and murdered by loyalist paramilitaries as he locked the gates of the club in May 1997. No-one has ever been convicted of his killing.
Stormont First Minister and Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill and SDLP leader Claire Hanna were among supporters who accompanied the Brown family to the Court of Appeal in Belfast on Thursday to hear the Government’s appeal against the public inquiry order.
