30 April 2025

SDLP Leader Claire Hanna MP has branded a decision by the UK Government to challenge a court ruling that a public inquiry should be held into the murder of Sean Brown as “appalling”.

She was speaking after Secretary of State Hilary Benn confirmed the government’s intention to appeal.

South Belfast and Mid Down MP Claire Hanna said:

“Sean’s widow Bridie is 87 years of age and it is heartbreaking what she and the whole Brown family have been through to get answers around their beloved husband and father’s death. To continue to deny that to them is simply wrong and it’s disgraceful that the UK Government continues to prioritise keeping secrets for those responsible for murder over the rights of victims and their families.

“The SDLP has invested hundreds of hours publicly and privately into pushing for an ethical and just approach to the past and is finding that time after time that a resistance to disclosure - an unwillingness to come clean on the squalid contacts between state forces and both loyalist and IRA paramilitaries - is blocking families at every turn. That, plus cowardice from paramilitaries, is the core of why families have been held back for all these decades."

Mid Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone said:

“There is palpable anger at this decision from the UK Government. I have attended court with the Brown family on many occasions and have seen the toll it takes on them and Bridie in particular. Successive British government have placed barriers in their way over the past three decades and now are proposing to drag them to the Supreme Court.

“Sean Brown was a decent family man who gave so much to his local community. He was taken from the local GAA club and murdered in the dead of night in the coldest of blood. There can be no excuse for the UK Government’s continued attempts to cover-up the truth of what happened that night and their decision today is pathetic and should make them hang their heads in shame.”