Loughinisland: Chief Con to report to Policing Board
Police chiefs face questions after case against journalists dropped
Last updated 6th Jun 2019
PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton and Mike Barton from Durham Constabulary will report to the policing board on Thursday.
They are facing questions over the handling of the arrests of two investigative journalists last summer, whose case has since been dropped.
Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey were detained over the alleged theft of confidential documents from the Police Ombudsman.
The files appeared in a documentary about the 1994 Loughinisland killings No Stone Unturned.
The film broke new ground by naming suspects it said were involved in the UVF killings of six Catholic men gathered in a village pub watching the Republic of Ireland play a World Cup football match on TV.
Both journalists have always insisted the information came from a source and was not stolen.
The PSNI asked Durham police to investigate.
Last week a court ruled the search warrants granted to police were 'inappropriate' and ordered the material to be returned.
In a statement on Monday, George Hamilton said the case was being dropped and thanked Durham police for investigating.
Mike Barton said his officers "acted in good faith and followed due process."
But speaking on Tuesday after the material was returned, Barry McCaffrey was highly critical:
"I think there are serious questions to ask and it's not good enough for Mike Barton or George Hamilton to say that the proper procedures were followed.
"No they weren't."
The two investigative journalists travelled to Castlereagh police station on Tuesday to retrieve their journalistic files and personal items.
Among the haul of material were mobile phones, laptops, hard drives and millions of digital files.
Mr McCaffrey said both Chief Constables should be held accountable for what he called 'bad policing:'
"We believe that the police misled the judge and if the judge had have known that we had acted as responsible journalists, our houses would never have been raided, this whole charade would've never taken place.
"I think that George Hamilton and Mike Barton have to answer these questions, why did they mislead the court?"