The chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland has said he is appalled at the government's "grubby secret deal" on IRA "on-the-run" cases.
He was speaking after the case of a man accused of the IRA Hyde Park bomb collapsed following what victims' families called "a monumental blunder".
Donegal man John Downey denied killing four soldiers in the 1982 bomb.
The case collapsed because government officials mistakenly told him he was no longer a wanted man.
Mr Downey's lawyer said his alleged offences had been categorised as one of the "on-the-run" cases that would no longer be pursued in the light of progress in the Northern Ireland peace process.
On Tuesday, a judge at the Old Bailey in London halted the case because Mr Downey had a letter from the Northern Ireland Office dated from 2007, assuring him that he would not face criminal charges despite the fact that police in Northern Ireland knew he was still wanted by Scotland Yard.
Although police soon realised they had made a mistake, the assurance was never withdrawn.
The Crown Prosecution Service had argued that the assurance was given in error - but the judge said it amounted to a "catastrophic failure" that misled the defendant. A trial would therefore be an abuse of executive power.
Another 186 people received letters telling them they would not face arrest and prosecution for IRA crimes. The police, and Northern Ireland Office officials are checking the rest of the cases for further errors.
Victims' families said they felt "devastatingly let down" by what they called "a monumental blunder".
Who are the On The Runs?
Anyone already convicted of paramilitary crimes became eligible for early release under the terms of the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement of 1998.
The agreement did not cover:
- Anyone suspected of, but not charged with, paramilitary offences committed before the Good Friday Agreement.
- Those who had been charged with offences but who had escaped.
- Those who had been convicted of offences but who escaped.
Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland are asking the government to re-consider the case.
NI Police Federation chairman Terry Spence said the news would shock the families of more than 200 RUC officers. He said they seemed "certain to be denied justice because of a scheme negotiated by the Blair government".
"None of us knew of the existence of this administrative scheme or what it entailed or the number of on-the-runs involved. There is a crying need for clarity as well as some honesty and decency," he said.
"The government owes it to police families to tell them, without any double-speak, that there is now no chance of them ever seeing justice being done in cases involving their relatives.
"There were 211 unsolved murders of RUC officers prior to the Good Friday Agreement and it looks from this grubby, secret deal that they are to remain unsolved."
Mr Spence said he felt angry, disappointed and betrayed.
"Why did it take a mistake exposed at the Old Bailey to shine a spotlight on this sorry mess?" he asked.
"Start Quote
End Quote Peter Hain Former NI SecretaryIn the case of crimes for which individuals were suspected, the victims feel tortuously bitter about that and I understand that, I would as well. But it had to be dealt with. It was dealt with. It is part of the reason, along with ending the war and ending the violence and ending the terrorism that Northern Ireland is in an immensely better place than it was"
Conservative MP Laurence Robertson, chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee at Westminster and, in 2006, a shadow Northern Ireland minister, said he would ask the Northern Ireland secretary at that time, Peter Hain, who gave him the authority to bypass the true criminal justice system.
Mr Robertson said he felt Parliament had been treated "in a very discourteous way at that time".
"What I'd like to see is some statement made in the House of Commons preferably by the Attorney General," he said.
Speaking on BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster on Tuesday, Mr Hain said Sinn Féin submitted some 200 names and these were subject to a "painstaking process" that was overseen by the attorney general and lord chancellor and involved careful scrutiny by the police.
"The issue was would there ever be evidence sufficient to bring a prosecution. If there was evidence that would have happened.
"In all of the cases where people got a letter from the Northern Ireland Office, it was not on a whim, it happened because it was carefully and diligently checked whether anybody could be prosecuted. If nobody could be, because the evidence did not stack up, then that was assessed."
Mr Hain asked: "What was the alternative? There were 200 people left in a limbo, maybe waiting to be arrested, but not to face prosecution because the evidence was not sufficient.
"In the case of crimes for which individuals were suspected, the victims feel tortuously bitter about that and I understand that, I would as well. But it had to be dealt with. It was dealt with.
"It is part of the reason, along with ending the war and ending the violence and ending the terrorism that Northern Ireland is in an immensely better place than it was. You have the prize of no war, no terrorism, none of that hideous horror any more."
Northern Ireland's chief constable Matt Baggott said the Police Service of NI accepted the court's decision and full responsibility for the failures which resulted in this outcome.
The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is to investigate the case.
The Hyde Park attack killed Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, Lieutenant Anthony Daly, Trooper Simon Tipper and Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young on 20 July 1982.
Mr Downey, 62, who was convicted of IRA membership in the 1970s, had denied murdering the soldiers and conspiring to cause an explosion.
He became Scotland Yard's prime suspect for the Hyde Park attack - but he was never extradited from the Republic of Ireland. He was described in court as a committed supporter of the Northern Ireland peace process.
In May 2013, he was arrested at Gatwick Airport while en route to Greece and charged with the murders and bomb attack. Mr Downey had travelled to the UK on four previous occasions since 2010.
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