The Ulster Unionist Party’s Policing Spokesperson Alan Chambers MLA said:

“The Ulster Unionist Party will take time to study today's ruling, which is complex and deserves thorough analysis.

“It is highly significant that the Lord Chief Justice ruled that the Police Ombudsman ‘overstepped the mark’ in his original statement, by attempting to connect RUC officers to criminal offences.  

“The appearance of the phrase ‘collusive behaviour’ in today’s judgement is however rather puzzling, given that there is no legal definition of collusion, no agreed non-legal definition, and indeed the Attorney General said that the term collusion should never be used.  

“What remains the case is that the focus should be very firmly on those terrorists who perpetrated the cold blooded and savage murder of six innocent men by entering that bar on 18 June 1994 and opening fire indiscriminately as they watched a World Cup football match on TV. Too often, terrorist attacks become the subject of investigations and inquiries that deflect attention from the horrendous, brutal and often indiscriminate abuse of human rights perpetrated by the killers. 

“The Ulster Unionist Party has always supported the rule of law. Those who break the law – whoever they may be - must be made amenable to the criminal justice system and the law must apply equally to all.

“No one needed to die for Northern Ireland to progress as it has. Those who chose to take up weapons and break the law, setting themselves up as judge, jury and executioner, bear a terrible responsibility for their own actions, as the rest of us wrestle with the legacy of violence, human rights abuse and lingering sectarianism.”