West Belfast murders: PSNI 'unable or unwilling' to deal with criminal gangs

A priest has said the police are "either unable or unwilling" to deal with the criminal gangs linked to a series of murders in west and north Belfast.

Fr Patrick McCafferty was speaking after Kevin Conway was killed on Tuesday night.

The 26-year-old was on bail after being charged with involvement in the January 2023 murder of Shane Whitla in Lurgan.

This was a shooting linked to an organised crime gang known as The Firm.

Tuesday's gun attack is one of series of killings linked to drugs and wider criminality in west and north Belfast over the last decade or so.

In a statement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said these were "extremely complex investigations and we have made arrests in a relation to a number of cases".

'People afraid to speak'

Fr McCafferty, who is based in Ballymurphy in west Belfast, said more needs to be done to bring those responsible to justice.

"I suppose the whole business is that this is happening in a small community, that the forces of law and order seem to be unable or unwilling to do anything about it," he told BBC News NI's Evening Extra programme.

"To solve these murders, to arrest those responsible for them and to dismantle, if you like, the apparatus of these drug lords and these organisations that are dealing in drugs and killing young people, killing people."

He said he understood there is a "culture because of the Troubles and the nature of the Troubles, that people are unwilling, afraid to speak to the police".

"Not as bad maybe as it used to be, [but] there is a legacy there."

Fr McCafferty also said he had sympathy with the complexity of investigations but that "from the point of view of the people in the community, people on the ground, it's an incredible situation that after 10, 15 years, there hasn't been a single person made accountable and put behind bars".

He added: "We have to trust the police, and we do, but at the same time a society where this happens with impunity is not a healthy society."

What we have seen in areas of north and west Belfast, in a period of about 11 years, is 17 murders where there are similarities.

Similarities in the method of execution and the brutality but also because in the overwhelming majority, there has been a failure to successfully bring prosecutions.

Now, the police would not see these cases as being over and there have been arrests. In one, the shooting of Robbie Lawlor, there are people before the courts albeit not at trial or conviction stage.

They would also say they have had success in pursuing cases in similar gun murders outside Belfast.

But we are talking about a large number of killings in similar circumstances in a relatively small area, where the police have had, to put it mildly, difficulty in mounting prosecutions.

These are complicated cases. There is a degree of sophistication from the perpetrators, who are often well-planned, methodical and forensically aware. There can also be the suspected involvement of dissident republican groups.

So there are difficulties in gathering evidence and in communities coming forward with information, which makes solving these crimes a challenge.

'Cold-blooded brutality'

In a statement on Thursday, Det Ch Supt Eamonn Corrigan, the PSNI's head of serious crime, said detectives are "investigating the horrific murder of Kevin Conway and a number of other firearms-enabled murders in Belfast".

"These are extremely complex investigations and we have made arrests in relation to a number of cases," he added.

"Whilst not connected to the murder of Mr Conway, there have been charges in relation to the murders of Liam Christie in 2022, Malcolm McKeown in 2019, Robbie Lawlor in 2020 and a number of people convicted for the fatal shooting of Paul Smyth in 2019."

Forensic officers attended the scene at Rossnareen Park on Wednesday

Mr Corrigan said its investigation into the murder of Mr Conway is at an early stage, and appealed to anyone who was in the Greenan area on Tuesday evening who noticed anything suspicious, to contact the PSNI.

He added: "We are absolutely committed to bringing Mr Conway's killers to justice, but ultimately we need the community to work with us and come forward to tell police what they know about the people who carry out these heinous murders.

"We need evidence in order to successfully prosecute and it is by working together that we can obtain better outcomes. I appreciate that can be difficult for some people but there are many avenues available to report information including anonymously to Crimestoppers."