Police Conduct And The Case Of Thomas Hamilton

EDM number 325 in 1996-97, proposed by Frank Cook on 09/12/1996.

That this House notes that Thomas Hamilton, the perpetrator of the hideously distressing slaughter committed in Dunblane on 13th March 1996 had enrolled in Lodge No. 1417 of the Masonic Order at Garrow Hill in 1977, had been granted his fi rearms certificate in 1979 and had stopped attending Lodge meetings in 1986, that the immediate resignation of a very senior police office on publication of the Cullen report raises the question of that officer's masonic membership, that such a senior officer of a provincial force would be unlikely not to be a Freemason, that the apparent deletion of all computer reference to Hamilton in the databanks of Central Scotland Police files for the period both before and after the incident demands clear explanation, that police confiscation of the membership records of gun clubs that had disowned Hamilton in dispute of his false claims requires justification, that their continued retention is both unwarranted and inexcusable and that in view of all the foregoing the range and character of the relationship between Thomas Hamilton and the police officer concerned would appear potentially suspect; and consequently requires Her Majesty's Government to institute at the earliest date the most urgent independent and exhaustive enquiry into these matters to ensure the open publication of the fullest report possible.

This motion has been signed by a total of 30 MPs.