JOHN TORNEY
By Felicity McCall

In July 2005, John Torney, an ex RUC officer aged 50, died from a heart attack in Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland, whilst trying to overturn his conviction and life sentence for murdering his wife Linda (33) and their children, 13 year old John Jnr. and 11 year old Emma at the family home in Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, on 20 September 1994.John had always maintained his innocence and his family have always said that such a crime was completely out of character; his lawyers have worked consistently to clear his name. John Torney claimed his son had “gone berserk” and killed his mother and sister before turning his father’s police revolver on himself.

The only motive adduced by the prosecution for the mass murder was that John had become infatuated with a female RUC officer whom he had known for only six weeks There has never, at any stage, been a shred of evidence that they were more than colleagues, possibly friends, and that she was someone in whom he had been able to confide some details of what was universally accepted to have been, for many years, a difficult and troubled marriage. The woman officer was not called to give evidence at his trial.

John Torney was convicted of the three murders at Belfast Crown Court on 4th March 1996 by a majority verdict of 10-2. Lord Justice Carswell (now retired) sentenced him to 3 concurrent life terms, with the recommendation that he should serve a minimum of 20 years in prison. On 18th April, 1997, he lost his appeal.

His small but devoted family circle have pledged to continue the fight to clear his name posthumously. In the face of opposition from the force John Torney and his father before him both served, and the legal authorities, they have enlisted the support of the British Irish Rights Watch, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, and the BBC’s investigative reporters on Rough Justice and Spotlight (NI). It is accepted that most, if not all, of the journalists who reported on John’s trial, even those who were not aware at the time of the evidence which had been ignored or suppressed, were convinced of his innocence. Every investigative or human rights group which has been approached by the Torney family or has researched his case has pledged its support to their campaign. Portia, through its Ireland office, is similarly pledged to campaign for the overturning of his conviction.

Originally, the case was referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission , who refused to refer it back to the Court of Appeal. The decision was challenged in the Northern Ireland High Court by way of a judicial review. The challenge was unsuccessful - but then new evidence came to light.

This followed the transmission of the BBC Spotlight programme, produced by Stephen Walker, in October 1999, which raised concerns about the case. A new witness came forward - Dr. Sam McGuinness, the former head of Cookstown High School which both John Jnr. and Emma had attended. Dr. McGuinness gave a sworn affidavit stating that he was told by a policeman that John Jnr.’s semen had been found on Emma’s body - but the evidence would not be used at the murder trial because there “was no need to rub John’s nose in it.” Despite two meetings with the Police Ombudsman attended by Jeffrey Donaldson MP, Jane Winter of British Irish Rights Watch, John’s brother and sister in law Samuel and Hilary Torney and his sister Elizabeth Ferguson, Dr. McGuinness was refused permission, under PACE regulations, to identify the officer concerned. Dr. McGuinness has always been willing to give a description of the officer and to identify him if asked to do so.

As the result of a judicial review hearing in June 2005, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Kerr, directed the CCRC to carry out further investigations to try to identify the policeman who had spoken to Dr. McGuinness. Two detectives have now given sworn affidavits that they were unaware (at the time of the trial) that eleven year old Emma Torney had told two of her school friends that her brother had been sexually abusing her. She had been going to tell her mother about it. The mother of one of these girls spoke to police officers the morning after the 3 deaths; this is recorded in the Chronological Report (but again, was not referred to in the trial). The Lord Chief Justice has directed the CCRC to look again into John Torney’s claim that he was innocent.

John Torney’s solicitor, Keith Burrows of Miller, Shearer and Black, who has said “The quest for justice does not end with John’s death”, believes the alleged evidence is support for his late client’s claim that his son , totally unknown to him, had been sexually abusing his sister and “went berserk”, shooting her and his mother before turning the gun on himself.

John Torney’s conviction is, Portia believes, unsafe and unsound on many grounds. The only motive offered by the prosecution was his relationship or “infatuation” with the colleague he had known for only six weeks. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest this. It was widely accepted by everyone who knew them; family, church ministers, RUC colleagues, family doctors; that the Torney marriage had been in difficulties for a long time and that provisional plans had been discussed for separation and care of the children. Linda Torney suffered from depression and was under medical treatment. The prosecution also pointed out that Linda Torney’s life was insured as part of the mortgage arrangements, but this was in keeping with the standard arrangements made by most married couples - not a potential source of gain for him.

Child sexual abuse remains perhaps the last taboo, even within a family.

The dozens of retrospective cases being brought to court each year, the accounts of physical and mental rape and abuse of trust, are testimony to this. Children may wait until they are parents themselves, or until the perpetrator or their own parents are dead, before going to the police. It is still almost unbearably painful to re-open wounds inflicted in the formative years and speak the unspeakable - even more so when a relative is involved.

John Torney’s sister-in-law Hilary who has deployed seemingly limitless mental, physical, spiritual and emotional resources into fronting the campaign for his vindication, is convinced that sexual abuse offers the only explanation for the events which led to the triple killing.

Her reasoning, and the corroborative facts, are compelling.

We know that one of the key issues raised by the defence was the fact that Emma Torney had told two of her school friends that her brother had been sexually abusing her. She had also told them she was about to confide in her mother. We will never know if she did. Either before or immediately after Emma’s death ,one of these school friends told her own mother about the allegations, and her mother contacted the police. The doctor who carried out the post mortem examination on Emma, the Deputy State Pathologist Dr Carson, did not rule out the possibility that she had been sexually assaulted. Dr. McGuinness, Emma and John Jnr.'s headmaster, remains adamant that a senior investigating officer told him, in the week after the shootings, that there was evidence of sexual activity between John Jnr and Emma on the night of the murder and that semen was found on the girl. Even at this stage the officer indicated that no mention of this would be made at the trial. Dr. McGuinness’ wife corroborates his affidavit; he told her about it at the time. It’s understood the sleep-suit worn by Emma Torney on the night she was shot could not be found by the Ombudsman. It’s believed it was sent away for testing for semen, but this was not carried out.

It seems clear that the investigating officers, for whatever reason, refused, or chose, not to take seriously the allegations that John Jnr had sexually abused his sister - in the face of evidence suggesting the contrary, and that, having killed his mother and sister, he then turned the gun on himself. It is an undisputed fact that child abusers are, more often than not, abuse victims themselves. Hilary Torney has told Portia that she only discovered after his death that John Jnr. actively disliked visiting a male relative on his mother’s side of the family. Hilary Torney has also put it on public record that two years before she was killed Linda Torney had confided in her husband that she had been sexually abused as a child by the same male relative. For her husband, this made sense of many things - his wife’s lack of self esteem, her depression, her personality problems, and not least the fact that their marriage had for years been celibate. Counselling was arranged. It was her refusal to attend counselling that led to their temporary separation. Hilary Torney can offer no explanation as to why a woman who has herself been abused would allow her son to be in the company of the alleged perpetrator.

John Torney was entitled to be presumed innocent at his trial. He was also entitled to be tried for his guilt or innocence; not on the basis of whether he or his son was more likely to have carried out the shootings. He was entitled to give the medically substantiated evidence that he had been in deep shock for some time after the shootings, shock which had blanked out his memory. He was entitled to his own claim that he was woken by a gunshot to find his wife dead in bed beside him, his son, “berserk”, brandishing a gun, thrusting papers, or notes, at him and ordering him out of the house. No one asked his RUC colleague, and possible recent friend, to give evidence on the unsubstantiated prosecution claims that he was infatuated with her or had a relationship with her. Dr. McGuinness, a respected figure in the community, has been unable to give his evidence about claims that John Jnr. sexually abused his sister.

Allegations remain that the detective unit involved, embarrassed by another recent trial and appeal involving a former RUC officer, was desperate, or under instruction, to get a conviction.

John Torney’s mother is now in a nursing home. His brother and sister-in-law continue to bear the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual pain of working day and night to clear the name of the brother they love.

BBC Spotlight is preparing a further programme on the case.

Portia supports their fight against a conviction which was unsafe and unsound - a life sentence, wrongly handed down, which proved to be just that.