Bridie Brown’s fight for justice

A plan by the British government to challenge a Court of Appeal ruling directing a public inquiry into the murder of Sean Brown has been greeted with a wave of anger in Ireland. Protests are due to take place outside Belfast High Court this Friday at 9.15 am over the plan to pursue a cover up of his murder to the Supreme Court in London, and the continuing mistreatment by Britain of the Brown family.

The following is an account of the family's campaign, written earlier this month by Suzanne Breen for the Belfast Telegraph.

The sight of 87-year-old Bridie Brown barely able to walk, being supported into court by her two daughters, should shame the British Government to its core.

This Labour administration has so far displayed no more of a conscience than the Tory one that preceded it.

Because if the suits who hold power in London possessed an ounce of morality, they’d already be hanging their heads in embarrassment about how Bridie and her family have been treated for almost three decades.

They’d be seeking to right the wrongs inflicted on the Browns, not to prolong their agony.

On Thursday, Bridie was in court for the 58th time, fighting for her murdered husband Sean.

The Court of Appeal said the Government’s refusal to hold a public inquiry into the killing was unlawful. It gave the secretary of state four weeks to reconsider his decision.

Bridie addressed him directly after the hearing. “Five judges have told you what to do. Do the right thing and please don’t have me going to London,” she said.

Surely Hilary Benn realises how awful it would look for Bridie to have to board planes and trains, and cross the Irish Sea and fight for Sean in the Supreme Court?

What a damning indictment of British justice that would be.

This woman has been forced to wage a never-ending legal battle to simply establish the truth about her husband’s murder.

The father-of-six was attacked by an LVF gang as he locked the gates of the Wolfe Tones GAA clubhouse in Bellaghy at 11.30pm on May 12, 1997.

Sean was 61, but he was fit. He’d done the maracycle the previous year.

There was a struggle, but he was overpowered and bundled into the back of his own car.

He was driven in a three-vehicle convoy to a secluded laneway in Randalstown 10 miles away. He was dragged out of his car, which was set on fire, and he was shot six times in the head.

His body was partially burned from the intense heat of the blazing vehicle. When her husband hadn’t come home, Bridie knew something was wrong.

At 2.30 am, she’d taken a torch and walked the quarter-mile journey from the family home to the GAA clubhouse. She shone the torch around the building, but there was nothing to see.

When police arrived at her door a few hours later, she didn’t need to be told the news. “Where’s his body?” she asked them.

From the very start of this shocking story, Bridie showed the courage and conviction she still displays.

Despite Sean’s injuries, she insisted on an open coffin. She said that everyone should see just what her husband’s killers had done.

Nobody has ever been convicted of his murder.

The RUC investigation was beyond woeful. The LVF gang were caught on camera as they drove past Toomebridge police station, but that footage is now missing.

The inquest was delayed for years. Bridie finally thought she’d secure justice when it opened last year. It heard more than 25 people were linked to the murder, including several state agents. One suspect was a Royal Irish Regiment member.

The security services had one LVF suspect under long-term surveillance — it stopped the night before the killing and resumed the morning after.

The inquest was abandoned after the coroner confirmed he was unable to complete the legal process due to PSNI and MI5 failures to disclose vital information.

He called for a public inquiry. The High Court ordered in December that one be set up. Benn challenged that instruction, but lost in the Court of Appeal last Thursday.

Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan couldn’t have been clearer. She described it as “a shocking state of affairs” that more than 25 years had passed with “no lawful inquiry into the circumstances” of Sean’s death.

Benn had argued that the new legacy body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, could deal with the case.

The Brown family, like so many others, have no faith in that body and believe any probe by it would be wholly inadequate. The court agreed with them that a public inquiry was the only way forward.

A further legal hearing takes place on May 2. The British Government has already put Bridie and her children through enough. At the 59th minute of the 11th hour, it has a final opportunity to do the right thing.

Urgent Appeal