24/01/2007

Police Ombudsman to brief board on report

The Policing Board are to be briefed by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan this afternoon.

The meeting is expected to be tense and the PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde is expected to attend the meeting.

Mrs O'Loan's report has come under fire from the retired police officer's association. In a statement highly critical of the report they described the report as "seriously flawed".

An Ulster Unionist Party delegation led by Party Leader Sir Reg Empey are pressing for a meeting with PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde at PSNI Headquarters to discuss the issues ahead of the Police Ombudsman's briefing.

The UUP are also concerned about the abolition of the Assets Recovery Agency, and will be pressing for further information on this decision.

On last night's BBC 'Spotlight' programme, former head of Special Branch and RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan again denied that he was aware of the specific details relating to one informant of one paramilitary grouping in Belfast.

He called for a "sense of balance" and said that the notion that this was common practice right throughout Special Branch should be "dispelled."

Sir Ronnie, who was the head of Special Branch prior to being promoted to Chief Constable, left the PSNI to join Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. He has rejected calls for his resignation.

The Police Ombudsman's report concluded that police officers had colluded with loyalist gangs in the murders of over a dozen people during the 1990s.

(SP/KMcA)

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