Police in Belfast engaged in “collusive behaviour” with loyalist paramilitaries who carried out 11 murders in the 1990s, according to a report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.

Marie Anderson investigated eight attacks by paramilitary loyalist gangs. She said it was “totally unacceptable” that police used informants within the Ulster Defence Association, who were engaged in crimes including murder.

In one attack gunmen shot dead five Catholics and wounded seven others at a betting shop in south Belfast in 1992. The watchdog found that Royal Ulster Constabulary files relating to the attack had been deliberately destroyed.

The police apologised for the “failings identified” by the Ombudsman.

Huw Edwards presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Ireland correspondent Emma Vardy.

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