Official title: William Stobie and the murder of Patrick Finucane
In brief
- De Silva concluded Stobie supplied a pistol used in the murder and that proper use of his pre-attack information could have prevented it.
- Special Branch withheld Stobie's information from the murder investigation.
What this chapter covers
Chapter 22 examines what William Stobie, the UDA quartermaster who was an RUC Special Branch agent, told his handlers before and after the murder, and what they did with that information.
Key findings
- The executive summary concludes that Stobie supplied a 9mm Browning pistol used in the murder.
- Stobie gave information before the attack. De Silva concluded that "proper exploitation" of that intelligence could have prevented the murder.
- After the murder, Special Branch "unjustifiably withheld this critical intelligence" from the RUC detectives investigating the killing, in the report's words as reported at the time.
Why it matters
Together with chapter 16 on threat warnings, this chapter supports the report's most serious practical conclusion: the state had information that could have saved Pat Finucane's life. Stobie was charged in 1999; the case collapsed in 2001 and he was murdered weeks later.