Marty O'Hagan
George Hamilton
Bill King
Drew King
The north's top cop George Hamilton has pledged that the hunt for the LVF killers of Sunday World journalist Martin O’Hagan is still on, and will continue.
The PSNI Chief Constable was responding to a call for a new probe into Martin’s murder from Ulster Unionist Party boss Mike Nesbitt and from the International Watchdog on Press Freedom, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
September 28, marked the 13th anniversary of Martin’s murder as he walked home from the pub close to his Lurgan, Co. Armagh, home in 2001.
The Sunday World has relentlessly campaigned for the then 51-year-old father-of-three’s killers to be brought to justice.
We have consistently named the two leaders of the LVF drug-dealing gang in this newspaper.
We do so again today. They are Drew ‘the Piper’ King, who we believe drove the car from which Martin was shot with seven bullets in the back, and his brother Robin ‘Billy’ King, who we believe pulled the trigger on the gun.
Both brothers – Drew King played the pipes at the funeral of LVF founder Billy ‘King Rat’ Wright – were among five suspects originally charged in connection with the brutal drive-by slaying. But charges against all five were then withdrawn.
Just a few weeks ago, the leader of the UUP Mike Nesbitt joined the Sunday World in calling for a fresh police probe into Martin’s murder.
Yesterday, both the OSCE – which has been involved in monitoring atrocities in Ukraine recently – and the NUJ urged a fresh probe into our reporter’s killing.
Dunja Mijatovic is the OSCE representative on Freedom of the Media.
She said: “It is unacceptable that all this time has passed and not one person has been held responsible for what was a public execution."
The Irish secretary of the NUJ Seamus Dooley, stated: “The fact that no-one has been convicted of Martin’s murder has emboldened those who seek to intimidate journalists in Northern Ireland on a regular basis.”
The PSNI has now put it on the record to this newspaper that the investigation into our colleague’s murder is still ‘live’.
The police have appealed for anyone with information about the infamous murder on this date a long and arduous 13 years ago to come forward.