THE PSNI chief constable is refusing to respond to Sinn Féin criticism of his stance on the police ombudsman’s report into the UVF bombing of McGurk’s bar in Belfast in 1971.
Matt Baggott said that, out of respect for the families of those killed, he would not publicly discuss Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson’s critical report of the RUC’s handling of the investigation into the atrocity which claimed 15 lives.
Last week Mr Hutchinson found the original police inquiry was biased by a belief that the bombing was the result of an IRA “own goal”. As a result key evidence pointing to loyalist involvement was ignored.
The ombudsman has called for the current police chief to apologise to the families for the failings of his predecessor nearly 40 years ago. Mr Baggott has yet to do so, and has angered the families, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and human rights organisations.
“My response to the ombudsman’s report was made impartially and objectively and I was asked to make a definite judgment in relation to the issue of investigative bias,” he said.
“My role is to be completely impartial and objective, that’s no disrespect to the ombudsman’s role whatsoever, but I will consider very carefully the issues that the families presented to me, their views and their opinions, and those discussions are ongoing.
“I am not going to talk anymore about those issues in respect for the families.”
The PSNI chief met the families immediately after the ombudsman’s report and is to see them again.
Yesterday’s meeting of the Policing Board was dominated by exchanges involving the DUP and Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey said Mr Baggott’s statements responding to Mr Hutchinson’s report “were a serious, serious disappointment to those families and, I have to say, to the wider nationalist community”.
The DUP attacked Sinn Féin, claiming its criticisms of the chief constable and the former RUC were a Nazi-style propaganda war against officers.