Former police officer admits conspiring to pervert the course of justice over Robert Hamill murder

​On the second day of the trial at Craigavon Crown Court, sitting in Ballymena, defence KC Barry Gibson asked for count one to be put to Robert Cecil Atkinson again, and the 70-year-old admitted that he conspired to pervert the course of justice.

The particulars of the offence disclose that between September and October 30 1997 the retired RUC Reserve constable “conspired together with Andrea Louise McKee, James Michael Robert McKee and others, to pervert the course of public justice in that you agreed to give false information to police officers making inquiries about a telephone call made from your house on April 27 1997 at 08.37 hours, as to the identity of the person making that call”.

Following Atkinson’s admission, prosecuting KC Toby Hedworth told Judge Patrick Lynch KC the PPS were “offering no further evidence” against either the defendant’s wife Eleanor Atkinson, 70, or against 72-year-old Kenneth Hanvey.

Accordingly, the Diplock, no jury, trial judge recorded not guilty verdicts for Mrs Atkinson and Mr Hanvey, who is from the Derryanvil Road in Portadown.

Although Mr Hedworth agreed that Atkinson’s guilty plea was on the basis “that this was a cover up, or attempted cover up,” he paused when Judge Lynch asked him whether it was further accepted by the PPS that “there is no criminal liability therefore for Mr Atkinson in terms of interfering with the actual investigation into the murder of Mr Hamill”.

He told the court that the PPS cannot say with certainty what was talked about during the phone call, “there would be an inference the contents was untoward but it would be wrong for us to go further than that”.

The charges arose after Robert Hamill, 25, was beaten by a loyalist mob in Portadown on April 27 1997. His murder was the subject of a public inquiry as it was alleged that four police officers were positioned in a police vehicle near the scene of the attack but did not intervene.

Mr Atkinson was one of the officers in the police vehicle on the night Mr Hamill was attacked.

Six individuals, including Allister Hanvey, were charged with the murder but the charges against five of them, including Hanvey, were subsequently withdrawn due to insufficient evidence while the sixth person, Paul Rodney Marc Hobson, was acquitted following a trial, a trial where Atkinson gave evidence.

In court today Judge Lynch put to the PPS prosecutor that the basis of the plea is that Atkinson “made a false statement, induced other people to make a false statement about the provenance of the phone call and it is accepted that he bears no criminal responsibility for any attempt to interfere with the investigation” into the serious assault and murder of Mr Hamill”.

Judge Lynch said that clearly, by the time he comes to pass sentence, “I will certainly require clarification” as that will be the basis upon which he deals with the case.

From a defence perspective, Mr Gibson told the judge the defence would be obtaining and providing medical reports as 70-year-old Atkinson has serious heart problems and has suffered a number of strokes in recent times.

Freeing the pensioner on bail, Judge Lynch adjourned the case for plea and sentence to June 7.