Official title: Allegations that RUC officers facilitated the murder of Patrick Finucane
What this chapter covers
Chapter 19 examines claims that RUC officers went beyond words and actively helped bring about the murder, for example by passing information, or by knowing of the plan and allowing it to proceed.
Key points
The chapter considers Finucane's status as a UDA target and what de Silva calls the wider evidential base: intelligence reports, witness accounts gathered by the Stevens investigations, and claims made later by former agents and handlers. De Silva tests these accounts against documents and explains which he found credible.
How to read it
The report's overall conclusion, that a series of positive actions by state employees actively furthered and facilitated the murder, draws on several chapters, not this one alone. Critics, including the Finucane family, have argued that a public inquiry with powers to compel witnesses could test this evidence more fully than a document-based review, an argument the Supreme Court considered in 2019.