Hamill and his friends were attacked by a group of loyalists, many of whom had just returned via bus from a night out at The Coach nightclub in Banbridge,[1] while walking home from St. Patrick's dance hall at about 1:30 am on 27 April 1997.

[2] Several men were arrested and questioned by police after Robert Hamill's death, however only one of this group was eventually put on trial for his murder:[3] On 12 May 1997, five Portadown men (Allister Hanvey, Wayne David Lunt, Paul Rodney Marc Hobson, Dean Forbes, Stacey Bridgett) were charged with the murder of Robert Hamill at a special court in Lurgan RUC station and remanded in custody.

[36] On 19 November 1997, the charges against Wayne Lunt and Stacey Bridgett were also dropped, with the DPP later stating that the evidence available was insufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of obtaining a conviction for murder against the men.

[2][3] RUC officer Gordon Cooke was also the subject of a subsequent internal investigation where he was accused of neglecting to preserve the crime scene, as well as failing to arrange the prompt arrests of identified suspects (or the seizure of their clothes for forensic examination), which resulted in loss of valuable forensic and identification evidence that led to a number of persons being acquitted at court for offences linked to the death of Robert Hamill.He was subsequently exonerated of all allegations.

[46] Diane Hamill, sister of Robert, also claimed the RUC had harassed her in the lead up to the trial of Marc Hobson, citing incidents such as blocking her in a car park with their vehicles and following her on foot while she was out shopping.

It was revealed at the conclusion of their trial[53] that after the break up of their marriage, Andrea had contacted police to withdraw previous statements she had made regarding phone calls from RUC reserve officer Atkinson's house on the morning of 27 April 1997.

[56] In September 2014, after several delays to legal proceedings,[57] District Judge Peter King, sitting at Craigavon court, ruled that a key witness was entirely unreliable and utterly unconvincing.

[61] On 10 October 2023, Kenneth Hanvey entered a not guilty plea at Craigavon Crown Court to a charge of perverting the course of public justice on 25 November 1997, in relation to providing false information to a police officer regarding the true identity of a person who called his house on that date.

[63] Specifically, Atkinson admitted that he conspired together with the McKee's and others to pervert the course of public justice by giving false information to police officers regarding the identity of the person who made a telephone call from his house at 8:37am on the morning of 27 April 1997.

[64] Judge Lynch instructed the prosecution to clarify exactly what criminal liability Atkinson had admitted to by his guilty plea, as although he had confessed to making a false statement about who made a phone call, it was unclear if he had any responsibility in terms of interfering with the actual police investigation into the death of Robert Hamill.

Trail judge Patrick Lynch remarked to Atkinson that he had been "a disgrace to [his] uniform and have continued to serve as a police officer for years afterwards as a criminal - for there is no other description for you.