Murder of Rosemary Nelson: Ms Rosemary Nelson (40), a married mother of three and practising solicitor, died as a result of injuries she received when a bomb attached to her car exploded on March 15th, 1999.
Among her clients were Garvaghy Road tenants who were trying to prevent an Orange Lodge parade passing through their community, a man charged with the murder of two RUC officers but later acquitted, and the family of Mr Robert Hamill, who was killed by a loyalist mob in Portadown.
According to Judge Cory, "there can be little doubt that it was the work of Rosemary Nelson as a solicitor which led to her murder."
In a 91-page report, he documents various death threats which were made against her during the last years of her life.
As well as receiving anonymous telephone calls and letters, she was told by various clients that RUC officers had made her the target of abusive, insulting and demeaning remarks.
Despite such threats: "She courageously carried on her work as a solicitor acting for clients who were unpopular with segments of the community.
"She was a symbol of steadfast courage and of dedication to her role as a solicitor."
Under the heading, "the failure to protect Rosemary Nelson", Judge Cory said after the murder of Mr Pat Finucane, 10 years and one month previously, "it would be reasonable to expect that government agencies would take a very serious view of threats to lawyers, particularly those that were defending people charged with terrorist offences".
Warnings about the safety of lawyers in the North were made by a range of bodies, including Amnesty International, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, British Irish Rights Watch, groups of US Congressmen, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, which in February 1998 found that Northern solicitors were subject to systemic intimidation and harassment by the RUC.
Judge Cory said it was for a public inquiry to determine whether or not RUC officers made threatening remarks about Ms Nelson.
"If it is found that they were, this could constitute strong evidence of collusion."
Similarly, he said, the public inquiry should establish whether or not Ms Nelson was verbally and physically assaulted at Garvaghy Road, as she alleged before she was killed.
The judge also noted that when it became known that Ms Nelson was representing a client charged with the murder of two RUC officers in June 1997 "the threats against her appeared to escalate".
Judge Cory accused the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) of failing to take into account letters from reputable organisations expressing concern about Ms Nelson's safety.
He also accused the NIO of "mishandling" documents that were directly pertinent and vitally important to the safety of Ms Nelson, including a death threat letter of June 3rd 1998 - a "vital piece of information" which was not passed on to the RUC.
"The NIO relied upon the RUC threat assessment which it must have or should have known did not take into account the death threat letter."
He also referred to remarks reportedly made by the then Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan to a member of a North American Attorney delegation in February 1999 to the effect that solicitors were working for paramilitary organisations.
If the report was true it "could constitute evidence of collusion by encouraging others to think of solicitors as being paramilitary members or terrorists who could be treated as such." He said, following the murder, both the NIO and the RUC denied that they were aware of any specific threat to Ms Nelson "although both were aware or should have been aware of alleged threatening incidents...
"Although these actions after the murder cannot standing alone constitute collusive acts, they may be seen as part of a cumulative pattern of conduct which could be found to be collusive."
Judge Cory said it was unlikely that any major leads would develop from the murder inquiry conducted by Deputy Chief Constable Colin Port.
"Heroic efforts were made to discover any evidence that would facilitate the arrest and prosecution of individuals for the murder," he said.
"There is certainly no evidence whatsoever of collusive actions on the part of the Port Inquiry team, " Judge Cory concluded.