Rosemary Nelson (née Magee; 4 September 1958 – 15 March 1999) was a Northern Irish solicitor who was killed with a bomb planted in her car by an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in 1999.
[1] Nelson represented clients in a number of high-profile cases, including Michael Caraher, one of the South Armagh Snipers, as well as a republican paramilitary accused of killing two RUC officers.
Nelson reported to the Committee on the Administration of Justice that one of the officers said "Rosemary you Fenian fucker", spat in her face, and that the police pushed her around to the extent that she had bruises all over her arm, her right shoulder and her legs.
[1] In 1998, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Solicitors, Param Cumaraswamy, noted threats from the RUC in his annual report, and stated in a television interview that he believed Nelson's life could be in danger.
[9][10] The inquiry found no evidence that state security agencies—including the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)—had "directly facilitated" her murder, but "could not exclude the possibility" that individual members of those agencies had helped the perpetrators.