Kingsmill survivor criticises ‘cruel withholding’ of Police Ombudsman report

The sole survivor of the Kingsmill Massacre has lambasted the “withholding” of a Police Ombudsman report into the atrocity as “cruel”.

Alan Black, 81, has described himself as being in poor health and said he fears he will go to his grave before finding out answers he has campaigned decades for.

Ten of Mr Black’s colleagues died and he was seriously wounded when republican terrorists posing as British soldiers ordered the workmen off a bus on the way home from work outside the village of Kingsmill in Co Armagh in January 1976.

They were asked their religion, and the only Catholic was ordered to run away.

Mr Black survived despite being shot multiple times.

No-one has ever been convicted of the murders, which the Provisional IRA denied.

However in April following a long-running inquest, a coroner ruled that the shooting dead of the 10 Protestant workmen at Kingsmill was an “overtly sectarian attack by the IRA”.

Mr Black said they expected the publication of the Police Ombudsman report following the conclusion of the inquest, but are continuing to wait.

He has issued a second pre-application protocol letter to the office of the Police Ombudsman to try and secure the report.

He visited Stormont on Thursday along with Karen Armstrong, sister of victim John McConville, for a meeting with DUP Policing Board member Joanne Bunting.

Asked how he felt when he saw a public inquiry announced into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, Mr Black said: “Everyone’s entitled, anyone who was taken the way Pat Finucane was taken is entitled, but we’re entitled as well.

“Why are we being passed from pillar to post, first with the inquest and now the Ombudsman, why are they doing this to us?

“They don’t want to open this can of worms, that’s my opinion. But that can of worms has to be opened. It can’t be allowed to fester. I’m 81, will I make 82, will we have that report.

“We have men dead over 40 years, I’m the only one that lived, I owe them and I will have to keep fighting and get whoever we can on our side.”

Ms Armstrong said they had been told by Ombudsman investigators that the report was completed in 2020, and questioned why the hold up.

She said her brother went to work that morning and never came home.

“We were left with basically no answers, even those first few weeks, we were reading information in newspapers, any detail we got were from newspapers, no-one from any position in security or government came to tell us anything,” she said.

“And that’s how we lived with Kingsmill for a long time. It was very, very difficult and still is to this day.

“John had plans, he wanted to go to college and study to be a missionary.

“We want truth. We haven’t even got an inch of that, and that’s what is wrong.”

Ms Bunting said Mr Black has used money in his legal action that he had saved for his funeral.

“It is appalling that some 48 years after this most brutal callous and sectarian of murders that caused embarrassment even for the IRA that to get to the truth, these families are still having to fight the very systems that were set up to support them,” she said.

“Mr Black is now 81 and in poor health. He has endured an eight-year inquest which frankly raised more questions than provided answers and as a result he has pinned his hopes for getting truth on the Police Ombudsman report, but he fears he may not live to see it.

“This matter should have been resolved and the report issued as soon as the inquest was over. The initial complaint was made in 2013.

“This is no way to treat innocent victims. It is shameful.”

A spokesperson for the Office of the Police Ombudsman said: “Given potential legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment.

“However, we can confirm that we intend to provide the findings of our investigation in respect of the Kingsmill murders and attempted murder to those families and victims who brought related complaints and concerns to the Police Ombudsman.

“This will be within the timeframe determined by the transitional arrangements, which is prior to May 1, 2025.”