14 September 2026

SDLP Leader Claire Hanna MP has said the publication of the Robert Hamill Inquiry report is an important acknowledgement of the serious failings surrounding his murder and the investigation that followed.

Mr Hamill was murdered in a sectarian attack in Portadown in 1997. Following the publication of the long-awaited Inquiry report, Ms Hanna raised the findings with the Secretary of State in the House of Commons and said lessons must be learned from the Hamill family’s long wait for truth and justice.

Claire Hanna MP said:

"I remember Robert Hamill’s murder and the atmosphere around that period very clearly. It was a brutal, nakedly sectarian killing.

"His family have had to fight so hard to establish the truth about what happened to him. I hope the publication of this report and the acknowledgement of those failings brings them some measure of comfort.

"It is impossible to ignore the wider context of Robert’s murder and the violence surrounding the Drumcree standoff. Lives were lost in the toxic sectarian turmoil of that period. Those seeking to revisit Drumcree should reflect on the pain and damage that surrounded it and where that politics led.

"The experience of the Hamill family is another example of the damage done when truth is delayed or denied. We have seen in this and other cases how families have spent decades trying to establish what happened to their loved ones and the role of state agencies. The UK Government must ensure that the new legacy arrangements give families a meaningful route to truth and accountability."