Sean Brown’s widow appeals for Hilary Benn to ‘do the right thing’

The elderly widow of Sean Brown has urged Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn “to do the right thing” and set up a public inquiry into her husband’s murder.

The Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that the UK Government’s refusal to hold a public inquiry into the killing of GAA official Sean Brown in 1997 is unlawful.

It has given Mr Benn four weeks to consider the matter.

Mr Brown’s elderly widow, Bridie, attended the hearing with her family at the Royal Courts of Justice.

It was the 58th time the 87-year-old had attended a court hearing as part of her long battle to secure answers about her husband’s death.

She said: “Mr Benn, five judges have told you what to do.

“Do the right thing and please don’t have me going to London.”

Mr Brown’s daughter, Clare Loughran, supported her mother outside court and said her family felt very positive about the judgment.

She said: “As my mum has said, five judges have now told us that really the only way to have a truthful and honest investigation of my father’s death has been an inquiry… we’re very pleased with the judgment so far today.

“Five judges have told him (Mr Benn) what to do.

“I think at this stage now he has got very little further option, the fact that he was trying to get us to go towards the ICRIR, and it’s been evident now today that that is probably something that is not appropriate in my father’s case, certainly not as it stands at the minute.”

She added that she feels the Government has “tried to draw this out for 28 years”.

She said: “We have had numerous secretary of states come through the north since my father was murdered, and very little of them to date have given us any sort of hope or very little trust in them.

“At this stage now, we really feel that if they can do the right thing by our side, we would be delighted with that.”

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She said they would like to see a public inquiry into her father’s death get under way as soon as possible.

“I think it was laid out there today that a lot of the groundwork is already done for it, so I don’t really see that there should be any further delay on that,” she said.

“We’ll be back in four weeks’ time, (hearing) number 59.”