A review into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989 has found that actions by employees of the British state "actively facilitated" the killing.
Mr Finucane was shot dead by loyalists in front of his wife and children in February 1989.
The Finucane family have said "the dirt has been swept under the carpet" and described the report as a sham and a whitewash.
The family said the worst thing about the Desmond de Silva report is that it is a "suppression of the truth".
Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that Mr Finucane's murder was "an appalling crime".
He said in a statement "the whole country is entitled to know the extent and nature of the collusion" in Mr Finucane's killing.
Mr Cameron said the Finucane family suffered "the most grievous wrongs" and he respects their view that the de Silva review was not the right response.
But he said he disagreed with them, and said a public inquiry might not have uncovered so much information about the killing.
The report concluded that there was no "adequate framework" for the police and security forces running agents in loyalist and republican gangs.
The family again called for a public inquiry, and said the case was the "most controversial", demonstrated the most state collusion and was a case the British "state had most to hide."
'Thorns in the side'
People whom the RUC Special Branch viewed as "thorns in the side" were not warned when threats were made against them, Mr de Silva concluded.
He said the officers decided whether to inform people a threat had been made against them only if a link could not be established to paramilitaries.
In his report, he highlighted one case involving another solicitor, Oliver Kelly, whom the RUC believed had links to paramilitaries.
"It was clear to me that steps were often not taken to secure the protection of those who were considered to be (as referred to in one intelligence document) "a thorn in the side" of the security forces during this period of the Troubles."
It found that the British army and Special Branch had advance notice of a series of planned UDA assassinations, but nothing was done.
Mr de Silva found that employees of the state and stage agents played "key roles" in Mr Finucane's murder.
Senior officers from the RUC, MI5 and the military repeatedly raised this issue without anything being done for years.
Mr de Silva said successive governments knew this was the case, but did nothing about it.
The lack of guidelines was "significant", he said, as the offices did not know the extent "to which their agents could be permitted to engage in criminality in order to gather intelligence".
He said intelligence officers were being asked to do work that could not be "achieved effectively" in ways that were lawful.
"It is my view that those charged with upholding the law should never be put in the position of potentially having to break the law in order to discharge their official duties," Mr de Silva concluded.
The publication of a report provides "the fullest possible account of the murder of Mr Finucane and the extent of state collusion", Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said: "It cannot be argued that these were rogue agents."
He said the degree of collusion exposed was "unacceptable" and said in a message to the family: "I am deeply sorry."
In November 2011, Mr Cameron announced he was tasking the barrister to examine the papers in what was one of the most controversial killings of the Troubles.
Last Sunday, RTÉ News published details of a 2003 inquiry which showed the RUC had recovered the murder weapon and gave it back to the British army to facilitate its destruction.
Read Richard Dowling's blog about the legal argument and impediments he faced in the investigation into the murder of Pat Finucane
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