The family of former Sinn Féin informer Denis Donaldson have urged the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland to take legal action against Gardaí to allow the family full access to his journal.
Donaldson was murdered near his home in Doochary in 2006 after it became known that he was working as a British informer for 20 years.
The family claim that the journal seized by Gardaí from the remote cottage outside Glenties where he was shot has significant value in the family’s investigations. However, Gardaí have told the family that the journal will not be returned for reasons of ‘national security.’
It is thought that investigators working for the Police Ombudsman for Northern Island, Dr Michael Maguire, have been given access to some of the journal’s content, but not all.
The family also claims that the PSNI did not allow investigators to speak with a police informer, cited as an alibi by a police officer who the family have alleged contributed to Donaldson’s exposure as an agent, leading to his subsequent death.
The family’s solicitor Ciarán Shields told the BBC: “”These are serious issues for the family which require the Ombudsman’s attention.”
“The position of the family is that when information that’s clearly vital to the Ombudsman is not being sought, it’s incumbent upon the Ombudsman to robustly tackle the Gardaí in relation to the refusal to provide the journal, and also the PSNI if they are halting the flow of sensitive information, and they should be robustly tackling that in the courts of necessary.”
In the next few weeks the family said that they will be approaching the PSNI and An Garda Siochana about a number of outstanding issues.
Donaldson’s family have said that they now have new information, which they need to examine.
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