North of Ireland Politics

A judge has rejected an application to quash a Police Ombudsman's report into the Loughinisland killings.

Six Catholic men were shot dead as they watched a World Cup match in the County Down village in 1994.

In June 2016 the Police Ombudsman ruled there had been collusion between some police officers and the gunmen.

In December 2017 Mr Justice McCloskey ruled that the finding of collusion was "unsustainable in law".

In January, he announced this aspect of the case was to be reheard before a new judge.

Lawyers for the ombudsman and victims' families had asked Mr Justice McCloskey to withdraw.

But at the High Court on Thursday, Mrs Justice Keegan rejected an argument that the ombudsman did not have legal authority to say there was collusion.

She held that the ombudsman had not acted outside his statutory powers.

Two retired police officers had attempted to have the report quashed.

In the ruling in December 2017 Mr Justice McCloskey said the authors of the Loughinisland report were "careless, thoughtless and inattentive in the language and structuring of the document".

He said the effect of the ombudsman's ruling was that none of the police officers accused of collusion had the protection of due process of the law.

'Strong public interest'

But Mrs Justice Keegan rejected the officers' argument.

She said: "This is a legacy case, involving the death of six people in circumstances where serious questions have been raised about police conduct.

"There is an obligation to investigate such matters and a strong public interest to know the outcome."

Good news for the victims families