An investigation carried out by the Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman, Marie Anderson has found that the PSNI did not leak information to the media about the whereabouts of a senior Sinn Féin official turned police informant who was murdered in Glenties.
The report claims however that Police in Northern Ireland could have done more to protect him after his role as an agent was exposed.
The report was commissioned after family of Denis Donaldson made a series of allegations in a complaint to Northern Ireland’s Police.
Mr Donaldson was shot dead in a cottage near the village of Glenties in April 2006.
He had been revealed as a security force agent who had been working for the police and MI5 for 20 years.
The investigation found that Police in Northern Ireland could have done more to protect him after his role as an agent was exposed.
The murder happened a fortnight after a Sunday newspaper tracked him to the cottage and ran the story, although it did not reveal the precise location.
Ombudsman Marie Anderson was critical of the PSNI for failing to carry out a risk assessment after Mr Donaldson’s exposure by the Sunday paper.
She described family’s concerns about the failure to conduct that risk assessment were “legitimate and justified” but that she could not conclude whether “if such a risk assessment had been undertaken and shared with An Garda Síochána, that the murder of Mr Donaldson could have been prevented”.
