UK Government rejects calls for public inquiry into murder of GAA official Sean Brown [Video]

THE FAMILY OF Sean Brown, a GAA official who was murdered in 1997, have said they are “devastated” that the British Government has rejected a coroner’s request for a public inquiry.

Sean Brown, 61, was abducted and killed by loyalist paramilitaries as he locked the gates at Bellaghy Wolfe Tones Club in Co Derry in May 1997.

No one has ever been convicted of his murder.

An inquest was under way into his death until March of this year, when a coroner said it could not proceed due to the withholding of sensitive files.

Mr Justice Kinney said his ability to examine Brown’s death had been “compromised” by the extent of confidential State material being excluded from the proceedings on national security grounds.

He said he would write to then-Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to call on the UK Government to establish a public inquiry into the loyalist murder.

The PSNI meanwhile said it would not stand in the …