Belfast Telegraph

UCBTs, another PSNI shambles

The Historical Enquiries Team told me in 2008 that “whenever a device failed to detonate it would be examined by Army Technical Officer’s [sic] and by this means ‘technically’ linked to other devices…There is no specific reference in the available case papers detailing any linkage between the UCBT used in the murder of your parents and other devices recovered during this period.”

Note there is no mention of forensic scientists.

In May 2014, I asked the Chief Constable  [among other things] :

1. What did the examination of the surviving bombs reveal?

2. Are the component parts of these bombs still available for evidential purposes?

3. What DNA has or could be extracted from these items?

ACC Harris [as he then was] replied in August 2014 as follows:

“The HET report made reference to fifteen UCBT type devices being defused. Although the SCRT review has led to the identification of potential forensic opportunities in respect of these devices, a senior scientist has concluded that although the bombs were similar in their makeup, they had subtle differences and could not be attributed to a single bomb maker.”

I asked Forensic Science NI for a copy of the report. Their reply was that :

“FSNI examined a number of devices during the period 1990 to 1992 however these were not correlated into any single report that we hold or have access to in our files.”

I served a freedom of information request on the PSNI on 13th November 2014. After much delay, it turns out that there is no report. Police now say that there was a verbal discussion with the HET during July 2014. They then go on , later in their reply to me to say this :

“there is no written report from the senior scientist in the case papers or the material created or gathered by the HET. The senior scientist verbally briefed the SIO and did not produce a written report or record notes of the verbal comments.”

So, dear reader, there you have it. Fourteen years after the murders , a senior police officer has a “verbal discussion” with a “senior scientist”. The latter has no written report and the former, disgracefully in respect of such an important matter, makes no notes whatsoever.

It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that police operations are populated with clowns and that senior officers would tell you anything.

Of course the alternative explanation is that they have been told not to try too hard.

Whichever way it is , the pain and grief that this  disgraceful behaviour causes victims is beyond words.

PSNI and failed investigations

The items recovered from the scene of the murders of my parents have been disposed of.

Is that a shocking statement? You might think so.

The police cannot tell me when they were disposed of, why and on whose orders.

The items  are therefore not available for testing by techniques which were used as far back as 1998.

Of course, if the bombers were State agents, it would be inconvenient to have their DNA found on the bomb.

I have written ,again, to the Chief Constable, requesting an explanation.

If the Protestant/Unionist/loyalist faction have not got the message yet [ yes and you too Willy!] let me spell it out.

The State is protecting a swathe of terrorists , republican and loyalist, for the greater good of the “peace process”. The “Crown” is not our friend, any more than it is the enemy of republicans.

Good people like my parents were sacrificed because the State deemed it appropriate.

There are hundreds of similar families suffering. For example the “human bomb” families of Derry, operations ordered by McGuinness.

I will share the Chief Constable’s response.

Next time- the UCBT teams, what the police knew and what they did about them.

PSNI-careless talk? Or worse?

On 11th August ACC Harris, as he then was said this , [in response to my assertion that Ed Moloney ,in his book”A Secret History of the IRA, pointed to McGuinness as the man who had ordered the murders of my parents] :

“The information contained within the book …is anonymous. The author Ed Moloney has previously been spoken to and is unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources.”

The police told the Senior Assistant Director of the PPS the same thing. He repeated to me: “Mr Moloney has previously been spoken to by police and was unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources.” The police were not briefing Mr Herron about interactions with Ed Moloney, they were dealing with a specific allegation.

Mr Moloney told me that no police officer had ever spoken to him about anything in his book, originally published in 2002.

I challenged the Chief Constable. He nodded the ball to ACC Kerr. He nodded the ball to D Supt Murphy, who seems to be in the Legacy Investigations Branch, probably the fourth or fifth outfit I have had to deal with. He replied :”ACC Harris previously wrote to you about interactions with Mr Moloney. In that letter , Mr Harris states that previous requests to Mr Moloney have not resulted in a positive response. I should emphasise that this was intended to reference other cases within the remit of the Historical Enquiries Team , rather than the murders of your parents specifically. I apologise if any confusion was caused.”

Of course ACC Harris did not write to me “about interactions with Mr Moloney”. He wrote to me about a specific allegation contained in a book written over twelve years ago.

Readers can make up their own mind about the honesty  of the police responses.

It now appears that they are going to attempt to make contact with Mr Moloney.

The fact is that the police were ordered not to investigate the chain of command in any bombing or shooting. The ASU did not just have an idea one day that they would go and kill someone. It was scouted , planned and approved. In my parents’ case the project would have gone up the line through Spike Murray, Brian Gillen, Bobby Storey and then to McGuinness. At least two of these people were State informers, Gillen and McGuinness.

I therefore allege that the State was aware of the identity of the people who conspired to kill my parents , as well as the killers themselves. Effectively, the State was engaged in murder. This matter will now be taken up again with the PPS, though not with the Director, who was at all material times, McGuinness’s lawyer. I am not aware of whether or not he represented Spike Murray , Brian Gillen or Bobby Storey.

Meanwhile I still await the PSNI explanation about forensic examination of UCBTs, outstanding since 13th November.

Edmund Burke

The quote, attributed to him, about evil triumphing when good men do nothing is apposite.

I was struck by a piece on the radio about a Jewish woman who was detained by French police, after France  surrendered. She was sent to a concentration camp [a British invention] in Poland.

For a moment it surprised me that a French woman could be seized and sent to another country, even then.

It must remind us that a regime can always find willing participants. They will [for a knighthood or less] do the regime’s bidding. This will include murder , lying , sometimes under oath, hiding the truth, destroying documents, or generally being a cheer leader for the regime.

For regime, read establishment. Check the list of honours in Northern Ireland  for the last twenty years, particularly Sirs and Dames for the Quislings.

In the case of Northern Ireland, these people were picked out by the British a long time before the Good Friday agreement. They were quietly and skilfully put in place into positions of power and influence in all areas of public life. To quote Wilde, they rose without a trace.

On both sides, the man in the street knows that we are an utterly broken society. But his “better” tells him that it ain’t so.

And while that is going on, watch the performance of SinnFein /IRA on this island as they move to seize power . Hitler built autobahns and promised the poor work. Sound familiar?

PSNI incompetence

Readers may recall that Ed Moloney took issue with the assertion by ACCs Harris and Kerr that they had spoken to him “previously” about his book “A secret History of the IRA”. A month has passed since I asked the Chief Constable to explain what is at least a contradiction. How long does it take either to provide some proof of contact with Mr Moloney or to apologise?

PSNI, their failure to care

Readers will know that my parents were murdered in June 1990. In October 2002 I wrote to the Chief Constable, pointing out that in the intervening years, I had had no contact of any sort with any officer in charge of the investigation. It took a further letter in January 2003 to prise a response out of the Chief Constable. He first nodded the ball, through Supt Harris [yes it is he!] to ACC McQuillan, known [affectionately?] by his colleagues as “the salad dodger”. He failed to reply. Supt Harris then passed the buck to ACC Hunter. She apologised for the delay in reply and for the failure to liaise over the past twelve years. She was unable to explain the failures because ‘senior members of the team…have ended their police careers.”

Two matters arise.

1. I am sure my experience is replicated many times over with other families.

2. What prevents the PSNI from contacting retired officers to discuss such matters? They are, after all, in receipt of substantial pensions from the public purse.

Next time: when is an investigation not an investigation?

PSNI no longer “personal ,professional, protective policing”?

Readers will know that I intend to walk through my experience with the state in respect of the murders of my parents.

Today, my exposition is the failure of the PSNI to properly relate to those who correspond with them.

It seems that “personal, professional, protective policing” has been replaced , on the 2015 letter heading , with “keeping people safe”. I wonder why?

I’m told that only two police stations Musgrave and Strand Road are open though the night, I wonder if this is correct?

Anyway, chronologically, here are the officers I have dealt with in my quest for justice for my parents. It is important to know that I always wrote to the Chief Constable, most of who couldn’t be arsed replying personally , except for Hugh!

ACC McQuillan

ACC Hunter

DI Blair

CC Hugh Orde!!!

ACC Kincaid

DS Stewart

ACC Harris

D Ch S Hanna

ACC Harris [again!]

ACC Kerr

I think I’m going backwards again.

The FOI response, promised last week on forensics , has not materialised.

Blog by blog I will take you through the swamp that is supposedly the investigation of terrorist activity in Northern Ireland. Thousands of other crimes are presumably dealt with in a similar fashion , while one of the architects, McGuinness, is DFM.

You will be unsurprised to learn that I have had no explanation from  the PSNI  about  their statement about Ed Moloney.

Charlie Hebdo

The images from Paris are shocking.

Of course, PIRA often shot police officers and civilians in similar fashion.

I doubt if the leaders of the Islamist terrorist group, responsible for this will ever sit in government in France.

I’m also sure that the French citizens will not have to wait twenty five years for compensation and justice.

It all makes Cameron’s words ring hollow.

PSNI “liars” part II

Senior Assistant Director Stephen Herron of the Public Prosecution Service also spoke to the police about this matter. Here is what he recounted to me in his letter of 28th November.

“it has been confirmed by ACC Kerr that with the exception of open source reference material  [Mr Maloney’s book…] which directly implicates Mr McGuinness, there is no evidential basis or intelligence available to link him with the murder of your parents.

As has been noted in previous correspondence you received from PSNI, the contributions to the book are anonymous and cannot be verified or corroborated for factual accuracy. Mr Moloney has previously been spoken to by police and was unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources”

Hopefully the PPS will also seek an explanation.

Stand by for the mystery of the missing forensic report…..

PSNI “liars”

Readers may know that on more than one occasion I asked the police to investigate McGuinness’s part in the murder of my parents and the allegations made by Ed Moloney, in his book, ” A secret History of the IRA”, page 347.

Here is what ACC Harris [now DCC Harris] wrote to me on 11 August 2104:

“The author Ed Moloney has previously been spoken to and is unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources”.

Here is what Ed Moloney told me today, when I put Harris’s version to him:

“No-one from the RUC or PSNI has ever approached me about anything I wrote in ‘secret history’ and certainly not about your parents’ terrible deaths…if they are telling you that , they are lying to you and you have my permission to say so in whatever arena you choose”

I will be writing to the Chief Constable, seeking an explanation and possibly taking the matter further, depending on his answer. So much for ACC Kerr telling the PPS that my parents’  case had been thoroughly investigated.

Other inconsistencies are emerging in  information supplied by senior officers and this will be the subject of future blogs.

Where would we be without the opportunity to put these matters in the public domain , by blogging?

I say this because the Bar Council avidly reads my blogs!