Stevens statement: Key extracts

Sir John made 21 recommendations

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens spoke about his report into collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries. Here are extracts of what he said:

We have identified serious shortcomings highlighting collusion.

And I define collusion in the following terms: The failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence and evidence and - the extreme - of security force agents being involved in murder.

These serious acts and omissions have meant that innocent people were murdered or seriously injured.

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I do want to draw attention to the murder of Brian Lambert.

He was a 19-year-old student, going through work experience on a building site when a terrorist, a criminal, came up and killed him by shooting him in the head.

He had absolutely no connections with anyone in any paramilitary organisation at all.

It was an innocent life that was taken just about as it was going to come to fruition and blossom.

For many years we have known the killers of Patrick Finucane.

The challenge, quite frankly, has been to bring them to justice and our inquiries are continuing.

However, we uncovered enough evidence to believe that his murder and that of the 19-year-old Brian Lambert, could have been prevented.

The RUC investigation of Patrick Finucane's murder should have resulted in the early arrest and detection of his killers.

And this leads me to conclude that there was collusion in both murders and the circumstances surrounding them.

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We attempted to establish whether loyalist paramilitaries or RUC officers had threatened Mr Finucane and whether he had made any formal complaint.

The absence of any record means that this criminal allegation cannot be substantiated against any RUC officer.

We also investigated the allegation that senior RUC officers briefed Douglas Hogg, then the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office.

And here I quote "that some solicitors were unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA".

Mr Hogg repeated this view during the debate on the Prevention of Terrorism legislation in the House of Commons on 17 January 1989, a few weeks before Mr Finucane was murdered.

To the extent that they were based on information passed by the RUC, the comments were not justifiable and my inquiry concludes that the minister was compromised.

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From day one, my inquiry team has been obstructed in its work.

Obstruction that was cultural in its nature and widespread within parts of the Army and the RUC.

And here I talk about FRU (Force Research Unit) in particular and RUC Special Branch in particular.

The fire that destroyed our incident room, in my opinion, has never been adequately investigated.

I believe it was a deliberate act of arson.

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The co-ordination, dissemination and sharing of intelligence was poor and sometimes non-existent.

Informants and agents were allowed to operate without effective control and to participate in terrorists crimes.

Nationalists were known to be targeted but were not properly warned or protected.

Crucial information was withheld from senior investigating officers in the RUC CID.