March 9, 2003 Top Soldier Named in 'Finucane Papers'
Geraldine and Michael Finucane gave their initial response to this news following a meeting in Dublin Castle at lunchtime today (Thursday). [BBC News]

The team investigating the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane is preparing prosecution papers surrounding a former head of a secret military intelligence unit in Northern Ireland.

Metropolitan police commissioner Sir John Stevens, who is leading the investigation, told a press conference on Thursday that he will be forwarding an interim report to the chief constable and the Policing Board in April.

Mr Finucane, a high-profile Catholic solicitor, was shot dead by the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association in front of his family at his home in 1989.

Sir John said the papers being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecution were in relation to Brigadier Gordon Kerr. Brigadier Kerr, who is now military attache in Beijing, formerly headed the military intelligence Force Research Unit in Northern Ireland at the time of the murder of Pat Finucane.

Sir John stopped short of saying that he was recommending a prosecution. He said that was a matter for the DPP.

The papers deal with collusion in general and other matters and are broader than the murder of Pat Finucane.

Sir John said that it would be some time before his full report was complete.

"I do not intend to leave any stone unturned," he said. "This approach has continued to identify fresh leads and uncovered information never previously disclosed. New people are still coming forward and talking to us. As of today I cannot give a firm indication of when my work will be finally completed, apart from saying that it will and must take as long as it takes."

The Stevens Inquiry was to have been completed in November but was delayed.

Since 1989, Sir John Stevens, has been investigating the allegation that elements within military intelligence and the old RUC Special Branch were colluding with loyalist assassination squads. The RUC became the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in November last year.

Only one person has faced charges in connection with Mr Finucane's murder, but the case against William Stobie was dismissed last November through lack of evidence. Stobie, a self-confessed former Ulster Defence Association (UDA) quartermaster, was murdered by loyalists outside his home in the Glencairn area of Belfast a month later. The Red Hand Defenders, admitted the killing, and said Stobie had been shot because of "crimes against the loyalist community". The RHD is a cover name used in the past by the UDA/UFF and the Loyalist Volunteer Force.

Mr Finucane's family has called for an independent public inquiry into the killing.

Last November, Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said an international judge would be appointed to decide if such an inquiry was necessary. But in February this year, on the 13th anniversary of her husband's death, Geraldine Finucane said she believed this would only slow down the process of finding out what happened.

A BBC Panorama programme earlier this year investigated allegations that British military intelligence units colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in several murders, including that of Mr Finucane.