Robert Hamill was walking home from St Patrick’s Hall in Portadown on the night of April 27th 1997, along with three friends. When they arrived in the centre of Portadown he and one of his friends were attacked by a crowd of about 30 loyalists. As they kicked and punched Robert, some of them were shouting:”Kill him, Kill him!” and “Die, you Fenian bastards!” An RUC land rover was parked nearby. Inside the land rover were four RUC officers. None of them intervened. It emerged later that some of the RUC people in the land rover were personal friends of some of the loyalists involved in the beating.