SHAMEFUL. That was the verdict from the father of a Special Constable murdered by an IRA gunman on plans to give compensation to terrorists’ families.

North Yorkshire Special Constable Glenn Goodman was gunned down on the A64 near Tadcaster in 1992 by Paul “Mad Dog” Magee, who was jailed for life but later released under the Good Friday Agreement.

Glenn’s father Brian, who lives near Tadcaster, spoke out today, after it emerged that Northern Ireland’s Consultative Group On The Past is now recommending £12,000 compensation payments to relatives of all victims of The Troubles – including terrorists.

The recommendations by the group, an independent panel set up to deal with the legacy of The Troubles, during which more than 3,000 people died, are understood to be part of a package of measures designed to promote reconciliation, which are being put to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.

Mr Goodman said he had no idea whether Glenn’s wife, Fiona, and son Tom would be entitled to such compensation, as the killing had happened on the UK mainland and Magee was not tried as an IRA terrorist during his Old Bailey trial.

He said he generally supported the idea of compensation to genuine victims of terrorism.

“I am not sure whether £12,000 is the right amount but anything is better than nothing, and I can imagine that in some cases the money would be very helpful to widows and their families.

“But as for the idea of compensation going to the families of terrorists who were killed – it’s shameful.

“It’s an absolutely ridiculous and insensitive suggestion. Have the idiots who came up with this given any thought to the victims? This would be like rewarding the IRA for their evil deeds.

“The widows knew what their husbands were doing, and they were being paid by the IRA to do what they were doing. If there’s going to be any compensation paid, it should be purely for the families of genuine victims.”

He said that when his wife Margaret heard about the proposed payments, her reaction had been “unrepeatable”.

The compensation proposals have been attacked by a former First Minister of Northern Ireland, Lord David Trimble, and the current First Minister, Peter Robinson.

They have said there would be a lot of anger at equating innocent victims with those who perpetrated atrocities.

Mark Thompson, from the nationalist Relatives for Justice (RFJ) pressure group, said there could be no price for truth and justice.

The total cost of the Consultative Group’s proposals would be £300 million, and the Irish government would be asked to make a significant contribution.


Crime sent shockwaves around UK

IT WAS a murder that sent shockwaves through the police service nationally – and shattered the lives of the parents, wife and son of Special Constable Glenn Goodman.

Glenn had been accompanying regular police officer Sandy Kelly on patrol in Tadcaster in the early hours of Sunday June 7, 1992, when they became suspicious about a parked Ford Sierra with two men inside.

The vehicle drove off towards the A64, pursued by the policemen.

After coming on to the dual carriageway, Paul Magee opened fire, seriously injuring PC Kelly and killing Glenn, who left a widow, Fiona, and a baby son Tom.

The Sierra sped off and was later followed by another patrol car: they riddled it with bullets near Burton Salmon.

The two officers inside were only saved from being killed when a member of the public arrived on the scene in his car, and the gunmen fled again.

One of North Yorkshire’s biggest manhunts was then launched. Hundreds of officers, many of them armed, combed woods and farmland.

The two men on the run managed to evade justice for four days, during which they slept rough, with much of their time spent hiding in a culvert near the A1 at Knottingley before eventually being captured.

The following year, the vehicle’s driver, Michael O’Brien, was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury at the Old Bailey and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The other man, Paul “Mad Dog” Magee, who already had a conviction for the murder of an SAS officer, was convicted of murder and given a life sentence, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 30 years.

Glenn’s parents, Brian and Margaret, went to the Old Bailey, where they said IRA sympathisers in the public gallery repeatedly taunted and provoked them.

However, the IRA was not mentioned during the trial, and it never became clear what Magee was doing in North Yorkshire in the first place.

The gunman served time at Full Sutton top security prison near Stamford Bridge, before being controversially transferred to a prison near Dublin, where he was reported to have received a hero’s welcome from other IRA prisoners.

The Goodmans fought a dogged battle to prevent the release of a “cold-blooded, callous killer”, sending off scores of letters to senior British and Irish politicians, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

They even turned up at Full Sutton Jail when the then Home Secretary Jack Straw was paying an official visit, and spoke personally to him, but the release went ahead anyway in 2000.

The couple said the decision to release him left them hating Mr Blair almost as much as they did Magee.


MP slams ‘inappropriate’ idea

SELBY MP John Grogan today strongly backed the Goodmans in their opposition to compensation for terrorists’ families.

Mr Grogan who is a member of the Commons Northern Ireland select committee, said the idea was “entirely inappropriate” and called on the Government to turn it down.

His stance is in sharp contrast to his position on the early release of IRA prisoners in the late 1990s, which he backed because he thought it would help bring about lasting peace.

Such arguments brought him into conflict with the Goodmans, who live in his constituency, and who vigorously opposed early release.

He said the compensation proposals were a very different issue.

“I think it’s entirely inappropriate to give £12,000 (to the families of terrorists). There’s a clear distinction between the entirely innocent victims of bombings and killings and those that perpetrated them.

“I think rather than healing the wounds in society, this is likely to cause more controversy and division, and the Government should reject it.”