The family of a prison officer who was shot by the IRA in 1983 has been told a cold-case inquiry into the killing has been hindered after crucial evidence was lost and destroyed.
The discovery was made after the cold case unit, which is a branch of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, launched an investigation into the murder of Brian Stack, a chief prison officer who was shot as he walked along the South Circular Road in Dublin in March 1983.
Stack was shot in the back of the neck by a masked gunman, who fled the scene with an accomplice on a motorcycle. The prison officer, a 47-year-old father of three, was left paralysed and brain damaged, and died in September 1984 as a result of his injuries.
Austin Stack, the victim’s son, said his family was informed that fingerprints, which gardai suspect belonged to one of two men who carried out the shooting, were destroyed during a flood at garda headquarters in 1982.
A helmet worn by a man who drove the getaway motorcycle has also been lost or mislabelled. A search of the garda’s evidence archive in north Dublin and other garda storage facilities has failed to locate the item, which was to be re-examined using modern DNA testing techniques.
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“To say we are disappointed is an understatement. The investigation was reopened by the cold case team in 2007, which identified over 150 flaws in the original investigation. We had hoped the review would result in the identification of the killers and possibly a prosecution,” said Stack, who was 14 when his father died.
“My family always accepted that if the gardai identified the killers, it would be unlikely that they’d ever spend a day in prison because they would qualify for automatic release under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. I had no wish to see someone serve a lengthy prison sentence, but I do want someone to be held accountable for my father’s death and explain why it happened,” he said.
Gardai believe members of the Dublin brigade of the Provisional IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army were responsible, although republicans never claimed responsibility. Stack was the only member of the Irish Prison Service to be murdered during the Troubles. Detectives suspect he was targeted because he was responsible for internal security at Portlaoise prison, where paramilitary prisoners were then held.
“He was killed shortly before the IRA tried to organise a mass breakout. A number of my father’s colleagues have told me that he had stepped up security at the prison because he knew something was going on and suspected some prison officers of colluding with the IRA and helping them to smuggle weapons and semtex into the prison prior to the attempted breakout,” said Stack.
“Dad had organised a number of searches looking for the contraband, which is why he was targeted. I think some of his colleagues may have been concerned in case they were exposed,” he added.
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Among the suspects identified by the original garda investigation was a “man with a mole on his cheek” who was seen standing close to the scene where Stack was shot.
He was identified as a paramilitary figure from north Dublin and is suspected of being the getaway rider. This man was questioned but not charged.
A known IRA gunman from Armagh was named by informants as the killer but the information could not be corroborated. “The garda investigation was not as comprehensive as it should have been so we all feel let down,” said Stack.
A garda source said a number of republicans had been interviewed as part of the new investigation and added: “Some materials have been lost but the inquiry is proceeding and we have made progress.”