The RUC and Sinn Fein were at odds last night over the issue of whether the force had advance information of a specific threat to the life of the lawyer Ms Rosemary Nelson, who was killed by a car-bomb in Lurgan last March. The Sinn Fein spokeswoman on policing, Ms Bairbre de Brun, claimed there was "a wealth of evidence" to show the US-based Lawyers' Alliance for Justice in Ireland made the RUC aware that Ms Nelson's life was in danger but the police had failed to take preventive action.
However, security sources dismissed the documentation referred to by Sinn Fein as irrelevant because it related to alleged harassment and threats by police officers against Ms Nelson, a matter which had already been fully investigated. Sinn Fein was simply trying to distract attention from the embarrassing issue of the bodies of the "disappeared", according to security sources.
The minutes from a meeting of the Police Authority of Northern Ireland in April stated that the Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, said Ms Nelson had not sought security advice from the RUC and that "prior to her murder the RUC did not have information to suggest that she was the subject of a specific terrorist threat".
This reported statement was dismissed by Ms de Brun who said yesterday: "The US-based Lawyers' Alliance for Justice in Ireland raised the matter directly with the RUC over a number of years and raised the issue directly in meetings with Ronnie Flanagan.
"The Lawyers' Alliance also wrote to the Independent Commission on Police Complaints, to Jack Straw, to Adam Ingram and to Louis Blom-Cooper detailing the nature of the threats against Rosemary, including threats by serving members of the RUC. An extensive file of correspondence to the above people detailing the nature of these threats and witness statements has been gathered over a considerable period of time.
"The period of time over which this organisation stressed their concern to the RUC and others in positions of responsibility regarding the danger to Rosemary Nelson directly refutes Ronnie Flanagan's assertions that he knew nothing of these threats."
A spokesman for the RUC said last night: "The type of material described by Sinn Fein was the subject of investigation by Commander Mulvihill. None of this in any way contradicts the Chief Constable's answers to specific questions at the Police Authority meeting in April. These answers indicated that the RUC of itself had no information or intelligence in its possession to substantiate what others were alleging."
Ms de Brun produced a copy of a letter from the Lawyers' Alliance to the Independent Commission for Police Complaints dated July 17th, 1997 stating that "the harassment, threats and attempted intimidation of Mrs Nelson have continued, and in fact have recently become more sinister".
In a letter to the Chief Constable's office dated January 5th, 1998, the Lawyers' Alliance refers to "harassment by members of the RUC of Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson", adding that "this continuing abuse has been documented by numerous statements of witnesses".
On November 5th, 1997, the alliance sent the ICPC what it called "documentation of abuse and threats by the RUC against individuals and solicitor Rosemary Nelson". In a reply, the ICPC said material it received from the alliance was forwarded to the RUC.
A spokeswoman for Ms de Brun said that in February 1998, 12 members of the Lawyers' Alliance met the Chief Constable and "raised the issue of the threats against Rosemary with him". Later in the same month, six members of the alliance "again met with Ronnie Flanagan and asked him directly what he was going to do regarding the threats against Rosemary and they named the RUC officers who had made the threats".