British PM :'shocking' state collusion in N Ireland murder

Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that an official report had revealed a "shocking" level of British state collusion in the 1989 paramilitary murder of Northern Ireland lawyer Pat Finucane. But the 500-page report found there was no "over-arching state conspiracy" to murder Finucane, who had defended high-profile members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Cameron said the review exposed "shocking levels of state collusion", for which he apologised, but he once again resisted calls by the Finucane family for a public inquiry into his death. Finucane's widow, Geraldine, who with their three children had watched the 38-year-old Catholic lawyer shot 14 times at their home in north Belfast, declared the report a "whitewash". In one of the most controversial murders of 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland, gunmen from the pro-British Ulster Defence Association (UDA) broke down the door of Finucane's house before gunning him down. Three criminal investigations and a further report found there was British state collusion, and one man was jailed for murder in 2004, but Cameron ordered a review last year to give a full account of what happened. The review by senior lawyer Desmond de Silva concluded Wednesday that two agents of the British state were involved in the murder, along with another person who later became an agent. It also found that the British army and police -- who at the time were battling armed republicans in Northern Ireland -- had prior notice of a series of planned attacks by pro-British paramilitaries but failed to act. The UDA, which fought for Northern Ireland to retain links to Britain, stood on the other side of the conflict from the IRA, the paramilitary group which wanted a united Ireland free from British control. De Silva found Finucane's murder could and should have been stopped. "I have concluded that two agents who were at the time in the pay of agencies of the state were involved in Patrick Finucane's murder, together with another who was to become an agent of the state" despite his British employers knowing about his involvement in Finucane's murder, the report said. De Silva said British security forces had passed information to the UDA and had promoted Finucane as a target, while they also failed to investigate and arrest key members of the West Belfast branch of the UDA. Loyalist Ken Barrett was convicted of Finucane's murder in 2004, but Northern Ireland's police force said it would now look at whether anyone else should be held accountable. In a statement to parliament, Cameron apologised to the Finucane family on behalf of the British government, saying: "I am deeply sorry." "Collusion should never, ever happen," he added. De Silva's report found that government ministers were misled as to the extent of security force leaks to the UDA and other loyalist paramilitaries. "Despite the different strands of involvement by elements of the state, I am satisfied that they were not linked to an over-arching state conspiracy to murder Patrick Finucane," it said. The Finucane family have requested a public inquiry into the murder, but Cameron said: "I respectfully disagree with them that a public inquiry would produce a fuller picture of what happened and what went wrong." But Geraldine Finucane said Wednesday's report had been drawn up without any input from her family. She accused De Silva of suppressing the truth and attempting to throw all blame on dead individuals and disbanded organisations while exonerating ministers, serving officers and existing security agencies. "Yet another British government has engineered the suppression of the truth behind the murder of my husband," she told a press conference. "The dirt has been swept under the carpet. This report is a whitewash."