Portadown pensioner denies charge of perverting course of justice in Robert Hamill murder case

Standing in the dock of Craigavon Crown Court on Tuesday, 72-year-old Kenneth Hanvey entered a not guilty plea to the single charge against him of perverting the course of public justice on November 25, 1997.

The charge alleges that Hanvey, from the Derryanvil Road in Portadown, perverted justice “in that, when asked by a police officer about a telephone call made from a certain house on April 27, 1997 at 08:37 hours, you gave false information to a police officer that it had been James Michael Robert McKee who made the telephone call.”

Last month Portadown couple ex-RUC reserve officer 69-year-old Cecil Atkinson and his wife Eleanor Atkinson, also 69 and both from the Brownstown Road in Portadown, denied conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

They are accused of conspiring with each other and with Andrea McKee, James Michael McKee “and others” to pervert the course of justice on dates between September and October 30, 1997 by agreeing “to give false information to police officers making enquiries about a telephone call made from your house on April 27, 1997 at 08.37 hours, as to the identity of the person making that call.”

In a case which has been before the courts at various levels from as long ago as 2003 and has even been dismissed by other judges due ago a lack of credible evidence, this is the first time Hanvey has appeared in the Crown Court.

The charges arise after Robert Hamill was attacked by a loyalist mob in April 1997 and his murder was the subject of a public inquiry because it was alleged that four police officers were positioned in a police vehicle near the scene of the attack but did not intervene.

Mr Atkinson was one of the officers in the police vehicle on the night Mr Hamill was attacked.

In court on Tuesday both senior lawyers for both the defence and prosecution agree the trial would take around a month to hear and due to a busy court diary, it would not be heard until at least the New Year and possibly as far away as around Easter.

Freeing Hanvey on bail, Judge Patrick Lynch KC said he would review the case on November 21.