The Police Ombudsman has found that complaints from the family of John O’Hara about the RUC investigation of his murder in 1991 were “legitimate and justified”.
Mrs Marie Anderson said: “Although the initial police response was comprehensive and of a good standard, the subsequent murder enquiry was not capable of bringing those responsible to justice.”
In a report published today (24 April 2025), the Ombudsman also concludes that the “inadequacy” of the investigation meant that it failed to meet the legal obligation under the European Convention on Human Rights to thoroughly and effectively investigate the murder.
Mr O’Hara, a 41-year-old father of five, was working as a taxi driver when he was attacked by gunmen at Dunluce Avenue in south Belfast on 17 April 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), a loyalist paramilitary group aligned with the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), admitted the murder the following day. Despite the organisation’s claim that taxi drivers were being used by republicans to target loyalists, police stressed that Mr O’Hara had no connection to any political or paramilitary organisation.
Police Ombudsman 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.
However, Mrs Anderson said she had found nothing to suggest that police had information that would have allowed them to take action 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.
Failure to arrest potential suspects
The failure by police to arrest a number of potential suspects, some identified by intelligence and other information, is a recurring theme in the Police Ombudsman’s report about Mr O’Hara’s murder.
“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
Police Ombudsman investigators found no evidence that the alibis provided by three suspects arrested in connection with Mr O’Hara’s murder had been tested by police.
One was interviewed 21 times over the course of three days in April 1991. Mr O’Hara’s murder received only two brief mentions during these interviews.
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’ (see Notes to Editors). 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 Police Ombudsman’s investigation identified a number of forensic failings during the RUC investigation of Mr O’Hara’s murder.
They 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.
“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
Forensic failings were also identified in relation 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 added that her investigation had been impeded due to the unavailability of a number of 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.
Complaint about collusion
The complaint by Mr O’Hara’s widow included an allegation that she had not been kept updated about the progress or developments in the original police investigation.
As a result of this lack of contact with the investigation team, she suspected that there had been ‘collusion’ between the police and those involved in the murder.
Mrs Anderson said her investigators had identified and spoken to the officer who had contact with the family during the murder investigation.
He stated that his point of contact with the family had been Mrs O’Hara’s brother-in-law.
“The officer agreed that, because of the pressure of work at that time, together with security concerns regarding the releasing of information, there was insufficient contact with all families who found themselves in similar circumstances during this time period. This is a systemic issue that I have identified in other similar cases.”
Mrs Anderson also noted that the modern concept of family liaison did not exist in 1991, and came into being only as a result of recommendations made by a public enquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence in London in 1993.
The Ombudsman’s investigation found no ‘collusion’ in relation to the allegation of failures by police to update Mrs O’Hara about her husband’s murder.
“However, in consequence of the judgment of Scoffield J on 6 February 2025, I am unable to form an evaluative view of my own on whether conduct constituting ‘collusion’ or ‘collusive behaviours’ was identified by my investigation,” added Mrs Anderson.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- The Police Ombudsman’s investigation of the circumstances surrounding Mr O’Hara’s death was initiated on the basis of a complaint made by his widow in June 2007. Mrs O’Hara raised further matters in an additional statement of complaint made in September 2012, following a report on the murder by the PSNI’s Historical Enquiry Team.
- Mrs O’Hara’s complaint was initially investigated as part of a larger thematic investigation which focused on the activities of the UDA in South Belfast. The report, published in February 2022 and available on the Police Ombudsman’s website, considered police actions in relation to eight loyalist attacks in which 11 people were murdered, including five people murdered at the Sean Graham Bookmakers on the Ormeau Road on 5 February 1992. The Police Ombudsman was unable to include Mr O’Hara’s murder in her earlier report as related criminal proceedings in relation to Person S were ongoing at the time. These concluded with the death of Person S in December 2023, while the trial was ongoing.
- The term “the Boston Tapes” refers to a collection of confidential interviews recorded as part of the Belfast Project, an oral history initiative conducted between 2001 and 2006 at Boston College, Massachusetts. The project aimed to document first-hand accounts of individuals involved in ‘The Troubles’. The interviews were conducted on the condition that they would remain sealed until the participants had died. However, the PSNI and PPS sought and gained access to these tapes through legal proceedings.