The Police Ombudsman has found that a series of complaints made by the former head of Special Branch in Belfast were "unsubstantiated" and that the Chief Constable did not unfairly remove him.

Former Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Lowry, who retired in November last year, had alleged that Chief Constable Hugh Orde had acted “unfairly and politically” in removing him from his role as Regional Intelligence Advisor, Belfast, purely on the instructions of the Security Service.

However, an investigation by the Police Ombudsman found that Mr Lowry had been removed from his post over concerns about information that had been passed on to a senior BBC journalist.

Formerly the police’s Regional Intelligence Advisor for Belfast, Mr Lowry was the senior Special Branch officer working on the investigation of the March 2002 break-in at Castlereagh Police Station.

The Policing Board asked the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland to investigate the complaints made by Mr Lowry.

The report disclosed that before the Police Ombudsman’s investigation started there had been concerns about ‘high quality’ leaks of information regarding the Castlereagh investigation and the Stormont investigation. But the Police Ombudsman did not investigate this matter and it is not known who was responsible for the leaks.

Mr Lowry was removed from his post amid concerns he had divulged some sensitive intelligence information to a journalist. A PSNI investigation into the matter was established.

The Police Ombudsman's investigating team interviewed a number of people, including senior members of MI5 and the PSNI. It did not investigate any leaks and these allegations did not form part of the complaint by Mr Lowry.

The Police Ombudsman has forwarded a 42-page report on the investigation, which was led by her Executive Director David Wood, to the Secretary of State, the Policing Board and the Chief Constable.

Mr Lowry told the BBC that he was “disappointed, but not surprised” by the Police Ombudsman’s report.

(SP)