Family finally have answers five decades after Northern Ireland murder

An interlocutor helped the family of John Crawford understand why he was shot in 1974

UVF murder victim John Crawford, right, with wife Eileen. PA

The family of a father of nine shot dead in Northern Ireland have finally been given an explanation about why he was murdered, after a five-decade wait.

John Crawford was killed at his furniture workshop in west Belfast in 1974 by a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force.

The loyalist paramilitary group’s involvement became apparent in 1977 when James Glover, a man with UVF connections, confessed to the killing and was jailed.

But because he pled guilty at trial, he was not publicly questioned and the family did not learn anything further about why Mr Crawford was murdered.

A subsequent inquest, a Police Ombudsman report and a Historical Enquiries Team report also failed to provide any insight.

And Mr Crawford's son Paul said the full truth of his murder only came to light in recent years after the intervention of a go-between.

His son Paul said talking to the UVF via interlocutor Winston Irvine delivered “absolutely full answers and full resolution of what I was seeking”.

The process started in 2016, and Mr Crawford worked with Mr Irvine to ask questions and receive answers as well as verify what he was told.

The UVF also confirmed the Crawford family's suspicion there had been collusion in the murder.

While it said there had been no joint enterprise involving other groups or agencies, the group accepted the information it acted on was flawed.

The process, described by Queen's University Belfast academic Prof Kieran McEvoy as “a first” for loyalism, is the subject of a report by the university.

Prof McEvoy said the closest comparison to the process is the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, through which the IRA and INLA have provided information to assist in finding the remains of people who “disappeared” in the Troubles.

“My father was an innocent man who was brutally murdered in a sectarian assassination for which no organisation ever claimed responsibility,” said Mr Crawford.

“My mother Eileen, now deceased, told journalists immediately after the murder in 1974, 'we want to know who did this and why it should happen to him'. Like many families who lost loved ones, that has remained our quest in the ensuing five decades.”

Paul said the original investigation was “poor” and that the brief inquest in 1974 merely confirmed the cause of death.

“One man, James Glover, was convicted in 1978 of the murder after he was arrested for something else and confessed to being involved in my father's killing and several others,” he said.

“However, because he pleaded guilty at trial there was no cross examination and opportunity to learn anything further.

“A subsequent Police Ombudsman investigation, during the tenure of Al Hutchinson as ombudsman, was a complete waste of time.

“A Historical Enquiries Team report confirmed that my father was an innocent man but that determination was undermined by the fact that one of the original investigating RUC officers was dead and another refused to co-operate.

“After all of these processes, we still had many questions and I concluded that those questions could only be answered by the group responsible, the UVF.

“The process took a long time as it involved agreeing a set of ground rules, with me setting out clearly the information that I was seeking, including that I was not looking for the names of those involved, and then the information being relayed back and forward over many scores of meetings via the interlocutor.

“Ultimately, my family and I received answers to the questions we were seeking and a formal written acknowledgement of responsibility for the murder from the UVF.

“I do not believe in closure — my father was brutally and unjustifiably taken from us and that is a wound that will never heal — but as far as I am concerned this process has delivered absolutely full answers and full resolution of what I was seeking.”

Victims Commissioner Ian Jeffers commended what Mr Crawford has done as “tremendously brave”.

“From my point of view, it shows that with the right tenacity and the right approach you can get information — but the reality is leaving that up to the victim to do seems very, very cruel and that's something we must address as a civil society,” he said.