County Derry Post

The PSNI has yet to release all its files on the murder of County Derry GAA official Sean Brown, a coroner has been told.

By Connla Young
connla@derrypost.com

 

The Bellaghy man was abducted from the gates of the Wolf Tonne GAA club by the LVF as he locked up in May 1997.

 

The father of six was later shot several times at a quiet lane near Randalstown.  His body was found beside his burnt out car.

 

A preliminary inquest in Belfast last week heard that the Brown family’s legal team has yet to receive all relevant police files into the murder.

 

Karen Quinliven, who represents the Brown family, expressed concern that a key file disappeared from a police station in 2001.

 

A police legal representative claimed that several files relating to the Brown murder contain sensitive information including intelligence documents.

 

Coroner John Lecky questioned whether the material contained in the documents was sensitive given that a key suspect in the murder, Mark Fulton, was now dead.

 

Mr Fulton, a close associate of LVF founder Billy Wright, was found dead in his prison cell in Maghaberry prison in June 2002.

 

The Brown family has been highly critical of the police probe into the murder. And in 2004 former Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan branded the investigation ‘incomplete and inadequate’.

 

A date has not yet been fixed for the full inquest to be heard.