Kingsmill report finds failings in original probe and ‘wholly insufficient' use of resources to catch IRA killers
Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson examined the original Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) investigation into the crime following complaints by bereaved relatives and the sole survivor of the attack Alan Black.
Ms Anderson said she had concluded that the complaints were in large part 'legitimate and justified'.
The ombudsman recognised the 'intense pressure and strain' facing RUC officers in 1976.
Notwithstanding that context, she identified a series of failings in the investigation, including a failure to arrest and interview suspects and a failure to exploit ballistic links with other attacks in which the same weapons were used.
She said there were also missed investigative opportunities and inadequacies in areas such as forensics, fingerprints and palm prints, and witness inquiries.
Ms Anderson added: 'By today's standards, the investigative resources available were wholly insufficient to deal with an enquiry the size of the Kingsmill investigation.
'The situation was exacerbated by a backdrop of multiple terrorist attacks in the South Armagh and South Down areas that stretched the already limited investigative resources available even further.
'The detective leading the investigation had a team of eight to assist him in investigating ten murders and an attempted murder, which was supplemented for only a matter of weeks by two teams of about eight to ten detectives from the RUC's Regional Crime Squad. This was entirely inadequate.'
Ten Protestant men were shot dead when republican gunmen posing as British soldiers ordered them off a minibus on their way home from work outside the village of Kingsmill in Co Armagh in January 1976.
The killers asked the occupants of the bus their religion before opening fire.
The only Catholic on board was ordered to run away before the shooting started.
Of the 11 Protestants who remained on the roadside, one man, Alan Black, survived, despite being shot 18 times.
Mr Black said after the conclusions on Tuesday that while they felt 'vindicated', adding there is still 'a long, long way to go'.
He said that all the failings which the coroner listed, would not have been made by regular police officers at the time, and that they were the failures of those higher up to protect the identities of informers.
'If they give up the informer, they were going to look for the handler - they don't want this Pandora's box opened, but Pandora's box has got to be opened,' he said after.
'So far we've been vindicated but we've a long way to go and with the help of these people here (at KRW Law), we are going to take it right to the end of the road.'
Mr Black said the 'death cries of his friends' remained his motivation in continuing to press for justice and truth.
'Every time a door slammed, we tried to open another door with the help of these people here (his legal team), and another door did open,' he said.
'So we just had to keep going and going and going. At times you get very low. But I owe a big debt to the boys that died. I'm not stopping.'
Some of the most significant failings the ombudsman identified include a suspect in the Kingsmill killings never being interviewed or arrested by police.
The individual, known as S104, 'usually travelled on the mini bus was not at work that day and was named by the IRA as being responsible for the KM attack'.
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