A murder investigation by the RUC into the killing of a father of five by UFF gunmen was "ineffective" and "not capable of bringing those responsible to justice", the Police Ombudsman has said.
John O'Hara was killed by paramilitary gunmen as he sat in his taxi in Dunluce Avenue on April 17, 1991. He had arrived to pick up a fare when a number of men emerged from an alleyway and fired shots through the driver’s side window.
The Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), claimed they carried out the murder the following day.
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The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has now published a report on the RUC investigation of the murder and has found that it was inadequate and "failed to meet the legal obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights to thoroughly and effectively investigate the murder."
Mrs Marie Anderson said police investigating the murder failed to effectively pursue relevant suspects, including failing to arrest a significant number of individuals implicated by intelligence reports and other information as having been involved.
Her report also reveals that the murder weapons can no longer be located for analysis using modern forensic techniques, and identifies failures to test suspect alibis, to seize a car suspected of being used by the killers, and to conduct adequate forensic enquiries.
Although despite these failings, Mrs Anderson said there was no evidence that police had information that could have enabled them to prevent the murder.
Police actions relating to the circumstances surrounding Mr O’Hara’s murder were initially investigated as part of a larger thematic Police Ombudsman investigation which focused on the activities of the UDA in South Belfast between 1993 and 1998.
Mr O’Hara’s murder was not included in the report on this broader investigation, published on 8 February 2022, due to the pending prosecution of a man charged in connection to the murder. The trial halted in December 2023 when the man died.
In the PONI report, a series of failings during the investigation were highlighted which include;
Failure to arrest potential suspects
Mrs Anderson said the RUC's failure to arrest potential suspects, including those highlighted by intelligence was a recurring theme.
“I am mindful that intelligence is not evidence but all investigative agencies rely on intelligence to assist in the investigation of crime,” said Mrs Anderson. “Intelligence can provide investigators with new lines of enquiry which may result in subsequent arrests and other investigative opportunities.
“My investigators have viewed intelligence and information that was provided to the murder investigation team that would have enabled them to identify a number of potential suspects to the murder. However, no arrests of these individuals followed.”
One potential suspect was not arrested despite being connected to the murder by witness evidence and by four separate pieces of intelligence received between April and September 1991 - one of which suggested that he had been one of the gunmen.
Mrs Anderson also referred to intelligence received by police in late April 1991, which indicated that eight people had been involved in the murder.
“This intelligence provided a significant amount of information about the murder, which I have concluded ought to have been actioned by police. However, only three of those people were arrested.”
Another of those named in the intelligence was identified by RUC Special Branch as a possible likeness to a photofit created by witnesses who described a gunman running down the street telling people to stay indoors.
Despite having been identified on the basis of intelligence and witness evidence, he was not arrested, although his home was searched. The search found nothing to assist the investigation of Mr O’Hara’s murder.
Police also raised an investigative action to trace and interview another of the potential suspects, rather than arrest him.
“I find it concerning that police had separate pieces of information suggesting that this man may have been linked to Mr O’Hara’s murder yet he was not arrested. He was interviewed only as a witness rather than a suspect,” said Mrs Anderson.
No evidence that police tested alibis
The report found that police failed to test the alibis of three potential suspects in the murder. One of these suspects was interviewed 21 times in three days in April 1991, but Mr O'Hara's murder was only mentioned twice briefly.
The suspect stated that he had been at his brother’s house at the time of the murder. There was no evidence that police had conducted enquiries to test this alibi.
Two other suspects, one arrested in May 1991, the other in January 1992, were each interviewed 11 times. They both provided alibis. However, Police Ombudsman investigators found no evidence that these alibis were tested by police.
“In the absence of these records, I conclude it is unlikely that this investigative action was pursued,” said Mrs Anderson.
"Alibi statements are an important part of the suspect strategy in a criminal investigation and are used to confirm or refute an account provided by a suspect. If these actions had been carried out by police at the time, the Senior Investigating Officer may have been able to either eliminate the suspects from the enquiry or could have used the evidence to further challenge them on their whereabouts at the time in question.”
‘Person S’
One of the people (Person S) whose name featured in information received by police in late April 1991 was known to be a member of another loyalist paramilitary group, the Red Hand Commando (RHC).
The Police Ombudsman’s investigation obtained information which suggested that he was not arrested in connection with Mr O’Hara’s murder as he belonged to the “wrong group,” given that the murder had been claimed by the UFF.
However, in 2016, Person S was charged with a number of offences in relation to Mr O’Hara’s murder on the basis of confessions made by him in the ‘Boston Tapes’. The trial was delayed by legal arguments around his health and fitness to plead, and he died in December 2023 while the trial was ongoing.
Mrs Anderson said the subsequent prosecution of Person S in connection with Mr O’Hara’s murder lent “significant weight” to intelligence obtained in April 1991 about his involvement in the attack.
Forensic failings: suspected getaway car
The PONI investigation found a number of forensic failings in the RUC investigation, which included a failure to seize for forensic examination a car which closely matched the description of the gunmen’s getaway vehicle provided by a key witness.
The witness reported that she had seen two men running across a footbridge and taking off their masks before getting into a red Vauxhall Chevette car at Donegall Avenue. She said the car had the word Chevette on its doors.
Police enquiries identified a man who lived near the scene of the murder and drove a red Chevette with similar distinctive markings – albeit with four doors rather than two as described by the witness.
He was interviewed as a witness rather than a suspect and provided an explanation to police as to his whereabouts on the night of the murder. Police were unable to fully corroborate his account.
Mrs Anderson said: “The Ombudsman was critical of the failure by police to consider this person as a suspect and was also critical of the fact that his vehicle was not seized and forensically examined.”
Mrs Anderson said the description of the Chevette and of the gunmen having taken off their masks was “the most significant” witness evidence obtained by police during their enquiries.
Despite this, she noted that police had not shown the witness photographs of suspects, or considered staging an identification parade, to establish whether she could identify the gunmen.
Forensic failings: balaclava
Another forensic failing related to a balaclava discovered on waste ground about a mile from the murder scene on 20 April 1991, three days after the murder. The person who found it told police it had not been there prior to 16 April 1991.
Twelve hairs retrieved from the balaclava were compared to those taken from suspects for another murder, but not against any from those suspected of involvement in Mr O’Hara’s murder.
“I am of the view that hair samples ought to have been obtained from all the arrested persons for comparison,” said Mrs Anderson.
“There is also no evidence that the balaclava was tested for gunshot discharge residue, and I am of the view that this forensic examination should have taken place.”
Investigators also found no evidence that clothing had been seized from any of those identified as suspects in the murder of Mr O’Hara, nor that police had initiated lines of enquiry to establish who made the telephone call requesting Mr O’Hara’s taxi, or where the call had been made from.
Murder weapons can no longer be located
The police investigation established that the two guns used in Mr O’Hara’s murder were a 9mm Browning pistol recovered in Moira in January 1992 following another murder, and a .32 calibre Smith & Wesson revolver, recovered in Belfast in 1995.
Mrs Anderson said that, based on the serial number of the Browning pistol, she was satisfied that it had been among a consignment of weapons imported to Northern Ireland by loyalist paramilitaries in 1987.
Neither weapon can now be located. The PSNI have confirmed that they do not have disposal orders for the weapons and hold no information about their location.
“I am of the view that weapons used ought to have been retained by police for evidential purposes in respect of unsolved murders, including Mr O’Hara’s. I am critical of this systemic practice by police and have referred to this issue in other reports,” said Mrs Anderson.
Missing records
Mrs Anderson said her investigation had been impeded due a number of missing records about the police investigation.
As well as the lack of information about what happened to the weapons used in the attack, she noted that records of interviews conducted with two of the suspects were missing, as were policy logs to provide the rationale for the conduct of the police investigation.
“The investigation of complaints about historical matters is challenging due to the passage of time and unavailability of relevant witnesses and documentation,” said Mrs Anderson.
Investigation unable to establish whether warning was provided to taxi firm
Mr O’Hara was a heating engineer by trade and on the night of his murder, had been working for Regal Taxis for the first time.
Mrs Anderson said police had received intelligence in March 1991 that the taxi firm, which was based in the Short Strand area of Belfast, was on a “hitlist” of targets compiled by the Shankill UFF.
“I am satisfied that police were in receipt of intelligence that clearly indicated a threat to employees of Regal Taxis from loyalist paramilitaries. My investigators were unable to establish if the owner of the business or his employees were made aware of this threat.”
The Ombudsman added that her enquiries had found “no evidence that police were in possession of intelligence, which if acted on, could have prevented the murder of Mr O’Hara.”
Mrs Anderson was grateful for the co-operation of a number of retired officers with her investigation. Her report noted, however, that two former senior officers did not assist and one of the officers was deceased.
The widow of Mr O'Hara also made a complaint regarding police collusion in the murder, however the PONI investigation found no evidence of this.
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