Former RUC man charged over Hamill killing

Former RUC police member Robert Cecil Atkinson, his wife Eleanor Jean and
Kenneth George Hanvey appeared at Craigavon Court on Thursday 3 July
charged with perverting the course of justice into the investigation of
the killing of Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill in April 1997.

Charges against the trio relate to a telephone call to the house of an
alleged suspect just hours after the attack on Hamill who died 12 days
after being beaten unconscious by a loyalist mob in Portadown town
centre as the RUC looked on.

49 year old Atkinson and his wife, whose address was given as care of
Portadown PSNI station, are alleged to have conspired with others,
including Andrea McKee of giving false information to the RUC between 8
September and 30 October about a telephone call made from their house
on April 27 1997 as to the identity of the person making the call.

52 year old Hanvey from Derryanvil Road, Portadown is accused of giving
false information on 25 November 1997 by claiming Michael McKee had
made the call from a house on 27 April.

The case was adjourned until next month when a date for a preliminary
hearing will be set.

25 year old Hamill, a father of three was attacked by a loyalist mob
yards from a RUC land rover in Portadown on 27 April 1997. Hamill never
regained consciousness and died 12 days later in the Royal Victoria
Hospital in Belfast.

Last year Michael McKee of Pineview Heights, Gilford and Andrea McKee
of Stabler Crescent, Garden Village in Wrexham were sentenced after
admitting giving false information over who made the telephone call in
the wake of the Hamill attack.