The Northern Ireland Policing Board tonight agreed to appoint an assistant chief constable from another UK force to oversee efforts to kick-start the Omagh bomb investigation.
The move is at the centre of a series of recommendations decided upon by the scrutinising body following marathon talks in Belfast aimed at ending the controversy surrounding the hunt for the "Real IRA" killers.
The Board was called in to broker a way forward following the bitter row between Police Ombudsman Mrs Nuala O'Loan and the Province's Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan over his officers' handling of the investigation into the August 1998 atrocity which killed 29 people.
In a damning report Mrs O'Loan called for an outside officer to be put in overall charge of the investigation.
But her recommendation was angrily rejected by the Chief Constable who instead decided to bring in a top Merseyside detective to advise the current senior investigating officer, Brian McArthur.
However, in what has been seen as a defining moment for the 19-member Policing Board, it has agreed to bring in another top-ranking officer who will be answerable to it.
The assistant chief constable will be asked to:
- Examine matters of resources and skill levels
- To satisfactorily conclude the investigation
- To undertake a quality assurance role
- To handle working practices with the Garda in relation to the Omagh bomb investigation
- To identify obstacles in the way of progress
- To report to the Policing Board at agreed intervals.
PA