Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman has decided that the RUC inadequately investigated death threats made against solicitor Rosemary Nelson before she was murdered in 1999.
Ms Nelson was killed when loyalist paramilitaries placed a bomb under her car outside her home in Lurgan.
Nuala O'Loan ordered a public investigation into complaints by the Committee on the Administration of Justice which claimed that the RUC failed to deal properly with loyalist paramilitary threats against Mrs Nelson.
At the publication of her report, Mrs O'Loan said police should have made more strenuous efforts to establish a clearer picture of the level of risk and threat to Ms Nelson, particularly given her profile at the time.
She also suggests the Northern Ireland Office may have failed to forward some of the documents to the RUC, even though it sent a covering letter about them.
She said they did not acknowledge the existence of previous death threats, including two threats which were said to have come from police officers.
One was an anonymous letter sent to her, stating 'we have you in our sights, RIP'.
The second was a leaflet circulated in the Portadown area, with Rosemary Nelson's phone number and address.
Rosemary Nelson was a lawyer who represented the Garvaghy Road residents in the early days of the Drumcree march controversy. Loyalists saw her as an advocate of the other side.
The 40-year-old mother of three was killed when a booby trap bomb exploded under the family's car outside her home in Lurgan in March 1999.
The Red Hand Defenders later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mrs Nelson's murder is also the subject of a separate independent inquiry into claims of alleged security force collusion in the killing.
It officially opened in April 2005, but with more than 100 witnesses to be called the inquiry has been delayed several times.
The government agreed to set up the investigation following recommendations by the retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory, who was appointed by London and Dublin to investigate controversial killings, among them the murders of solicitor Pat Finucane and LVF leader Billy Wright.
