February 7, 2004 Legal Bid on Cory Report
© the Irish News

Relatives of murdered Catholic solicitor Rosemary Nelson are today expected to start a legal challenge against the British government's decision not to publish a report into her killing.

It is understood that Mrs Nelson's mother Sheila Magee will lodge papers at the High Court in Belfast applying for leave to seek a judicial review of the government's failure to publish Judge Peter Cory's report into her murder in Lurgan, Co Armagh, in 1999.

"We were told that these reports would be published without delay but the British government have failed to live up to their side of the deal," Mrs Nelson's brother Eunan Magee said last night.

In October retired Canadian Judge Cory handed the British and Irish governments his reports examining allegations of security force collusion in eight murders on both sides of the border.

The Irish government has already published Judge Cory's reports on the murders in 1989 of RUC officers Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan and the 1987 killing of Lord Maurice Gibson and his wife Lady Cecily.

The British government has said it is considering the legal and security implications of publishing the reports.

However, Judge Cory told the families of Pat Finucane, Mrs Nelson, Robert Hamill and Billy Wright this month that he had recommended that public inquiries into their murders be held.

Earlier this month Mr Finucane's family was granted leave in the High Court to apply for a judicial review of the British government's refusal to publish the report into his murder in north Belfast.