Brown family shocked at British legal intervention

The daughter of a man murdered by loyalist paramilitaries says the British government’s decision to mount a judicial review over his case is “a real insult” to his memory.

Sean Brown was abducted and shot dead after locking up the gates of his local GAA Gaelic sports club in Bellaghy, County Derry in May 1997.

Evidence has emerged to confirm large-scale collusion in the killing. In March, a coroner halted an inquest into his death and wrote to the government to request a public inquiry.

However, the government said it now planned to take legal action to insist on British state secrecy.

Speaking on BBC News, Mr Brown’s daughter Siobhan said the decision came as “a complete bolt out of the blue and a real insult to us as a family and to my daddy’s memory”.

At hearing the news, Ms Brown said she was “totally shocked” but that nothing surprised the family anymore.

Siobhan Brown said her family would keep fighting to get justice for her father She said she felt “absolutely disgusted that the Secretary of State [British Direct Ruler] and Home Secretary would stoop so low”.

“We had a glimmer of hope that potentially there was going to be a public inquiry and that was something we were hoping would proceed,” she said.

The British government has not provided specifics on what is behind its challenge.

However, it is believed to cover details aired at the inquest about state agents and to defend its ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) policy of not responding to allegations.

Ms Brown said a public inquiry would give her family the answers to questions they have always had since her father’s murder.

“Why? Who? Those are questions my mother always asks - why him?” she said.

“My mother is now 86 years of age and that’s all she’s asked - why Sean?

“We’ll keep pushing to get to the answers.

“This is a stumbling block that we’ve now hit. There’s been many of those over the last 27 years, but we will keep on the fight to try and find justice for daddy.”

The family’s lawyer Niall Murphy, of KRW Law, said there was “a high degree of cynicism” as to the timing of the announcement, on the date that a decision on a public inquiry was due.

“The Brown ⁠family are gravely concerned that this is a concerted attempt to tie them up in legal processes that could take years ⁠and that they are being used as pawns in a wider attempt by the British government to defend its indefensible approach to Legacy,” he said.

He said they would be raise their own objections, including why has there been such a significant delay of more than 6 weeks in the move.

“Today’s announcement has a retraumatising effect on a family but most specifically an 86-year-old widow, already coming to the terms with the facts that were permitted to emanate from the inquest process,” he said.

Urgent Appeal