High Court injunction over secret papers case adjourned until Thursday

A HEARING at the High Court in Belfast into secret papers on three murders has been adjourned.

The case came before Belfast High Court again on Monday following a weekend injunction granted to the Secretary of State and the Chief Constable.

Theresa Villiers and Matt Baggott obtained the High Court injunctions late on Saturday against Culture, Arts and Sport Minister Caral Ni Chuilin who is charge of the Public Records Office.

It blocked the minister from allowing families to see inquest documents relating to the killing of their loved ones.

The Secretary of State and the Chief Constable said the names of security members named in the documents should have been removed before they were distributed.

Ms Ni Chuilin delivered the case papers relating to the deaths of three people murdered in 1971 to a law firm and victims’ group Relatives For Justice on Friday.

Mark Thompson of Relatives For Justice said no security force names appeared in the documents which dealt with inquests and trials of those convicted in court in connection with the murders.

The Secretary of State had been accused of attacking the Good Friday Agreement and causing a constitutional crisis.

Solicitor Niall Murphy from Kevin Winters law firm said: “That an unelected Secretary of State feels she has a right to overrule a democratically-elected minister on a decision wherein the minister benefits from the advice of the Attorney General is a constitutional crisis and an attack on the Good Friday Agreement.”

On Monday, following a hearing in the High Court, the case was adjourned for a full hearing of the issues involved until Thursday, August 15.

The documents concern three Troubles’ deaths – IRA man Paddy McAdorey who was killed by the Army in 1971, social work student Michael Donnelly killed by a plastic bullet in 1980, and Sadie Larmour murdered by loyalists in 1979.