Police Ombudsman investigators who questioned an ex-detective as part of a widening inquiry into alleged security force collusion with loyalist paramilitary killers wanted publicity without any hard evidence, it was claimed tonight.
After retired Sergeant Johnston "Jonty" Brown was released without charge, Democratic Unionist MLA Ian Paisley Junior hit out at the decision to detain him as he stepped off a plane at Belfast International Airport.
Brown was one of three former officers questioned on Wednesday about alleged attempts to pervert the course of justice.
They were held in the latest phase of a major probe by ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's team into how the RUC handled the hunt for the Ulster Volunteer Force murderers of Raymond McCord Junior.
Mr McCord, 22, a former RAF man, was beaten to death by members of the outlawed organisation in 1997 and his body dumped in a quarry outside North Belfast.
Claims that at least one of those responsible for the killing was shielded because he worked for police special branch are at the centre of the ombudsman's investigation.
Her findings are expected to be damning when they are published next month. But after Mrs O'Loan's staff arrested Mr Brown and two other ex-CID men, only to let them go without charge, Mr Paisley launched an attack on how the operation was carried out.
The Northern Ireland Policing Board representative claimed: "These were stage-managed show arrests of a number of former police officers.
"In particular, to arrest one as soon as he got off an aeroplane, and for the media to be at the house of another officer, was nothing short of scandalous.
"When the police go to arrest prominent republicans, prominent loyalists and other criminals, no such media circus is there spectating.
"The fact that no charges have come from the investigation of these officers demonstrates how little evidence the ombudsman had at her disposal.
"If the ombudsman wanted to carry out this investigation and make these arrests, then those former officers should have been treated like others and invited to a station for questioning."