POLICE IN SCOTLAND will investigate the circumstances of the shooting of two teenagers by members of the RUC in 1982.
Michael Tighe was shot dead and Martin McCauley was wounded by members of the RUC during the incident on 24 November of that year.
The PSNI said today that Police Scotland will conduct the investigation into the actions of Security Service Personnel “in relation to the withholding, concealment and destruction of surveillance evidence concerning an operation at a hayshed at Ballynerry Road North, Lurgan”, during which Tighe and McCauley were shot.
The Guardian revealed in 2000 that MI5 officers destroyed a secret tape that may have contained evidence about the murder of Tighe.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton explained that the move follows a referral under Section 35(5) of the Justice Act 2002 from the Director of Public Prosecutions in January 2015.
That referral requested that the Chief Constable undertake an investigation into the incident.
In the interests of transparency and public confidence, the Chief Constable decided that the police investigation should be conducted by an external police service and asked Her Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate to identify a service to undertake the investigation on behalf of the PSNI.
He said that any matters which come to the attention of the Police Scotland investigation team “which indicate, or appear to indicate, any sort of criminality or misconduct by current or former police officers” will be referred to PONI.
Police Scotland will conduct the investigation in relation to the actions of individuals who are not police officers. The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland will carry out an investigation in relation to the conduct of a number of former RUC officers involved in the same investigation.
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