This week the family report on Patrick Quail, killed in 1976 in North Belfast, has been published.
RFJ Caseworker Haley Olig said:
“For decades the 1976 murder of Patrick Quail was wrongly attributed to loyalist paramilitaries, being falsified as yet another sectarian attack.
“Patrick’s parents, wife, and brother all went to their graves without ever knowing the truth; that the British Army, intent on murdering a Catholic, were in fact responsible for shooting Patrick Quail Snr in cold blood, and then engaging in a coordinated cover-up to hide the shameful truth.
“These facts became known five years afterwards, in 1981, when having received information from a ‘whistle-blower’ the RUC arrested four soldiers involved in the murder. Despite making admissions about the murder during interviews including identifying the killer, none were charged.
“Further, the RUC never told the Quail family that soldiers were identified as suspects, arrested, admissions made, and then set free.
“The official position was to maintain the falsehood that loyalists were responsible.
“This too is shameful and surviving relatives describe this as deeply hurtful.
“Patrick Jnr has written to several British government officials including several prime ministers requesting help in his pursuit of truth and justice for his father’s murder, but most did not deign to respond. The most he received was a boilerplate letter encouraging him to go to the ICRIR, despite the judiciary’s findings that the ICRIR is incompatible with international human rights law.
Patrick Jnr concluded: “The British government is doing everything it can to force families to engage with the ICRIR, but as a family we refuse to be coerced. We have absolutely no confidence in the ICRIR.
“My father and our family deserve – and are legally entitled to – a human rights-compliant truth recovery process that exposes the full truth and holds the perpetrators to account. It’s not just a legal obligation; it’s a matter of basic human decency.”
The full report can be read on exclusively on the Relatives for Justice website here Patrick Quail Family Report
