Matthew Hill has been instructed as Counsel to the Inquiry to the Patrick Finucane Inquiry.
Patrick Finucane, a prominent Belfast solicitor, was murdered in his home and in front of his family in 1989 by loyalist terrorists in one of the most controversial attacks in the Troubles. Subsequent investigations provided evidence of the role of state agents and state collusion in the murder and in December 2012 the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, apologised to Mr Finucane’s family. The Finucane family continued to call for a statutory public inquiry and, in 2019, successfully argued before the Supreme Court that the investigations conducted by the state had not complied with article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Government announced that it would establish an inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 in September 2024. In June 2025, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland appointed Sir Gary Hickinbottom as Chair of the Inquiry and Baroness O’Loan and Francesca Del Mese as Assessors.
The Government has today published the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference.
More about the Inquiry can be found here.
