On Thursday, October 31, my solicitors McIvor & Farrell issued legal papers in Belfast’s High Court on my behalf for a Public Inquiry into the murder of my son Raymond, Jr.
Due to the courts shutting down young Raymond’s inquest because of the Legacy Act of the Conservative government—and a senior judge ruling that the Legacy Act is incompatible with human rights, and the most senior judge Lady Chief Justice ruling that ICRIR also set up by the Conservatives is also incompatible with the human rights of victims— I have nowhere else to go except to fight for a full Public Inquiry for my murdered son.
A large part of my legal argument is the fact that collusion between the British state’s Special Branch, a secret department of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, colluded with the proscribed terrorist organization the UVF in the murder of Raymond, Jr. and the cover-up of it.
This is the inquiry the British government and its security agencies fear more than any other because the British government accepted the independent Police Ombudsman report in 2007 that there was collusion between the State Forces and the UVF in my son’s murder. Yet no one has been brought to justice.
I ask politicians and citizens in America to support me in my call for a Public Inquiry, and I take this opportunity to again thank Father Sean McManus, Barbara Flaherty, and the Irish National Caucus in Washington, D.C., for their fantastic support over the years for justice for young Raymond.
On November 9, my son will be dead 27 years, no inquest, no justice, no truth, but I will not give up and on his anniversary, I ask all in America to say a prayer for justice for Raymond, Jr.
