THE police have agreed to give the coroner’s office a draft of a crucial report on the brutal sectarian murder of a County Derry GAA official in May 1997.
Sean Brown was abducted and killed by loyalists after locking up his club in Bellaghy.
His murder devastated his family and the Derry GAA community.
The development follows a summons from the senior coroner for the chief constable to appear before him to explain delays in giving information.
A detective superintendent appeared on his behalf.
The report was compiled by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) but has never been published.
There have been claims of collusion in the killing.
A hearing this week was told that while three issues were causing the current delay, the major stumbling block was the PSNI’s decision not to disclose the HET paperwork.
Today Kevin Winters, solicitor for the Brown family, said the continuing delay could prevent the inquest into the murder which is planned for early March.
He criticised the authorities for the ‘unacceptable’ delays.
Mr Brown’s murder was later described by friend and poet Seamus Heaney as ‘a crime against the ancient Olympic spirit’.
In Heaney’s own words, the Bellaghy GAA chairman was: ‘a man of integrity and good will’ and ‘represented something better than we have grown used to’. “The murder of Sean Brown hurt my soul”, he said.
Mr Brown was abducted by a UVF gang as he was locking the Bellaghy club gates after a late meeting in May 1997.
The GAA man was tortured before being shot dead and his body dumped in a remote laneway close to Randalstown.
Collusion in the killing was immediately suspected after it emerged that vehicles involved in the UVF abduction had passed Toomebridge RUC barracks without being recorded on CCTV footage. Nobody has ever been charged in relation to the Brown killing.
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