The Billy Wright Inquiry - Report

Download or read book The Billy Wright Inquiry - Report written by and published by Stationery Office/Tso. This book was released on 2010-09-14 with total page 701 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortly before 10.00 am on Saturday 27 December 1997, William Stephen Wright (Billy Wright), a loyalist paramilitary leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, was shot dead in the forecourt of H Block 6 (H6) at HMP Maze. His murderers, also inmates of the prison, were three members of the Irish National Liberation Army, a republican paramilitary faction. In 2003, Mr Justice Peter Cory, a retired Canadian Supreme Court judge, reported the findings of his investigation into allegations of collusion between British and Irish security forces and paramilitaries in the murders of several people, including Billy Wright (the report on Wright published as HC 472, session 2003-04, ISBN 9780102927436) and he recommended a full public inquiry. The Billy Wright Inquiry was set up in 2004. The Inquiry criticises the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) and the police (Royal Ulster Constabulary and its successor Police Service of Northern Ireland) for poor record-keeping, the destruction of relevant documents, and lack of co-operation. The Inquiry highlights a number of omissions on the part of NIPS that facilitated the murder of Wright: the poor management and operation of HMP Maze; lack of segregation of prisoners; staff supervision and 24 hour unlock; security checks of exercise yards; failure to implement recommendations of the Steele Report of 1997 on security; the transfer of Wright to H6; failure to consider a report by the International Red Cross that H6 was a "powder-keg". Allocating LVF and INLA prisoners to H6 was a wrongful act that directly facilitated the murder. The failure of the Security Service to relay information on a potential threat to Wright's life to the Prisons Minister is unfortunate but not regarded as collusion. No explanation emerged as to how the firearms were introduced into the prison.