The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) should have done more to offer protection to murdered solicitor Rosemary Nelson, a top official accepted “in hindsight”, according to newly released documents.

Mrs Nelson was killed by a loyalist car bomb outside her home in Lurgan, Co Armagh in March 1999.

The 40-year-old mother of three’s legal practice in Lurgan, Co Armagh, dealt with mainly routine cases, but she rose to prominence after taking on a number of high-profile clients.

They included suspected republican terrorists as well as the family of a Catholic man murdered by a loyalist mob, plus a nationalist residents’ group opposing Orange Order parades in the infamous Drumcree stand-off.

By the mid-1990s she had started to allege security force intimidation and reported receiving death threats from loyalists. Her claims that RUC officers were threatening her while interviewing her clients echoed the experience of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, who was shot by loyalists in 1989.

Shortly before her killing the NIO offered protection to two of her clients, Portadown councillors Breandan McCionnaith and Joe Duffy, who were campaigning against Orange Order demands to march on Garvaghy Road.

However, the NIO decided not to offer the same to Mrs Nelson because she had not sought it, she was not a member of the Garvaghy Road residents’ coalition, and she was not a councillor.

The NIO’s top official Joe Pilling later accepted in conversation with Irish diplomats that “with the benefit of hindsight the NIO ought perhaps to have actively sought her out on this”, according to newly unsealed reports of the conversation from the Irish national archives.

However, he suspected she would not have welcomed an RUC security offer, though he said he would have liked lighting installed that would have illuminated “the entire front of the house and would also have detected any interference with her vehicle”.

RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan believed the bombing had to have been carried out “in some form” by members of the Ulster Defence Association because it was “too sophisticated” for Lurgan Red Hand Commandos.

“He believes that UDA dissidents who are unhappy with the ceasefire may either have defected to the RHD or supplied material and expertise on an unauthorised basis,” according to an Irish Government note.

The heightened security force presence near Mrs Nelson’s home in the days before her killing was “pure coincidence”, NIO official Stephen Leach told Dublin, prompted by hoax bomb alerts by dissident Republicans in Lurgan’s Kilwilkie estate.

One of Mrs Nelson’s clients, Gary Marshall, claimed that he had been told during interrogation by the RUC at Castlereagh “that Rosemary works for the IRA and takes her orders from them”.

Just days before she was killed, Mrs Nelson contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs fearful about her safety, with an official noting: “She is very worried and asked if it would be possible to meet with the Minister to discuss her case.”

Before her death, the Chief Constable was unhappy that a United Nations’ special rapporteur’s report claimed that Mr Flanagan believed “that solicitors may in fact be working for paramilitaries”, though no supporting evidence was given.

Unhappy that such words were attributed to him, he sought their removal and “said that if the comments were kept in the report there may be a danger to life of Rosemary Nelson from loyalist paramilitaries”.

“As a result of this, the Special Rapporteur’s office is proposing to delete the names of the solicitors from the report. Ms Nelson considers this to be a meaningless exercise as everybody will know the solicitors the refers to,” the Irish Government document states.

An inquiry into Mrs Nelson’s death found no direct security force role in her murder, but said it could not rule out that “rogue” elements may have assisted the killers.

It said it believed the leaking of police intelligence “increased the danger to Rosemary Nelson’s life”, while threats made against the solicitor by officers, “had the subsequent effect of legitimising her as a target in the eyes of loyalist terrorists”.

The report catalogued failures by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) which resulted in a failure to warn Mrs Nelson of the danger she faced or to offer her adequate protection.

The inquiry concluded: “The combined effect of these omissions by the RUC and the NIO was that the state failed to take responsible and proportionate steps to safeguard the life of Rosemary Nelson.”

– This article is based on documents in 2024/28/36 and 2024/28/38.