Reaction to the PPS decision not to prosecute 1969 RUC killings

Patrick Rooney's mother Alice and twin brother and sister Con and

30th July 2020

RFJ statement in response to PPS decision in respect of the deaths of Patrick Rooney, Hugh McCabe and Samuel McLarnon by the RUC – “The RUC have Gotten Away With Murder”

Paul Butler, Caseworker in Relatives For Justice said:

“Our thoughts are with the McCabe, Rooney and McLarnon families who have waited so long for justice and this has now been forestalled.

“Today’s news that due to passage of time there will be no prosecutions in the killings of three civilians by the RUC in 1969 is that the price of justice delayed is truly justice denied.

“Today’s shame should motivate all actors, especially the British government to move immediately and implement mechanisms to deal with the past so no more families face this appalling vista.

“The failure by the state to operate under the rule of law, seeking instead to protect its personnel when they killed Catholics. is what inflamed and prolonged the conflict. The PPS’s decision is merely the outworking of those longstanding realities.

“While the families are all considering legal options tonight, we fully endorse the words of Con Rooney, brother of Patrick, ‘The RUC has literally gotten away with the murder of a 9-year-old child. Thirteen homes in Divis Flats were shot up that night, yet not one officer had the courage to admit to this, even when the ballistic and eye-witness evidence proved their accounts to be false. I am very disappointed for my family, and in particular my mother and my late father Neilly who campaigned tirelessly for Patrick.’”

Patrick Rooney

Trooper McCabe

ENDS

Pictured above is the family of Patrick Rooney, the first child to be killed during the conflict. The PPS letter sent to the family of Hugh McCabe can be read here PPS letter to the family of Hugh McCabe