Current Issues - 2004

February 2004

20 YEARS FOR MURDER - PoliceBeat Editorial

The Government’s recently launched consultation paper on the introduction of starting points or minimum terms for life sentences for persons convicted of murder is the opportunity to address the serious disadvantage in the protection of police officers and other public servants in Northern Ireland. Twenty years ago the then Home Secretary announced that certain serious forms of murder would receive tariffs of at least 20 years; specifically he included the murder of police and prison officers. Unforgivably the Northern Ireland Office did not adopt this policy. The Government has always been unwilling to grasp the need to afford Northern Ireland’s police officers the full protection of the law, preferring to deem these murders as politically inspired and therefore somehow mitigated.

In 1991 the then Secretary of State promised that Northern Ireland cases would be dealt with in a way which fully reflected their gravity but which at the same time took into account “the special circumstances of the Province”. According to the current consultation document, the average life sentence term served in Northern Ireland has been in the region of 15 years. In 1991 this Federation produced statistics that civilian murderers were being released after an average of 13.19 years. Amazingly, the murderers of security force personnel served an average of only 12.88 years; clearly special circumstances meant lesser sentences.

Under the Belfast Agreement any new convictions for pre-Easter 1998 terrorist offences, including murder, remain limited to a two year sentence. Thus we have the unpalatable situation whereby the South Armagh sniper unit who murdered several security forces personnel served only a fraction of their sentences.

Over the past 30 years the Government’s treatment of the murderers of police officers and security force personnel has never been sufficiently robust. However, if we are now living in a more civilised era then the normal rules of law should apply. If the Government believes that sentences of 20 years plus are appropriate for England and Wales then we would share that view even more so. It should not be forgotten that although our UK police colleagues have paid the ultimate sacrifice in upholding the law (sadly as recently as Boxing Day with the murder of PC Ian Broadhurst) rarely has an officer been the target or raison d’etre for the crime.

In Northern Ireland the murder of the police officers was the terrorist’s determined objective and on at least 302 occasions since 1969 they succeeded. In the Republic of Ireland the murderers of a Garda or a prison officer receive a mandatory 40 year sentence as the murderers of Garda Jerry McCabe are finding to their cost. The Irish Government understands the need to protect its police officers. The British Government now has the opportunity to show that it can do the same for us.