Call for investigation into 'corrupt' officers
VICTIMS campaigner Raymond McCord is today expected to meet Secretary of State Shaun Woodward in a bid to get the "corrupt" police officers identified in Operation Ballast into court.
The news comes as four men were arrested yesterday in north Belfast and Antrim by detectives from the PSNI's Serious Crime Branch and taken to Antrim Serious Crime Suite for questioning.
These are the first arrests by the PSNI since taking over Operation Ballast from the Historical Enquiries Team in December.
A PSNI spokesman said yesterday: "Detectives from the Serious Crime Branch who have taken over an investigation from the Historical Enquiries Team into a serious of murders and other crimes by the UVF in North Belfast made their first arrests today (March 8].
"Three men, aged 28, 32 and 62, were arrested in the greater Belfast area."
The fourth man, aged in his late 30s, was later arrested in the Antrim area.
The PSNI spokesman added: "This is a large and complex investigation which will continue for a considerable time."
The PSNI spokesman said that, to date, inquiries by the HET have led to 20 people being either charged or reported to the Public Prosecution Service for a total of 23 offences, including murder and attempted murder.
Among them is the alleged Mount Vernon gang leader and police informant Mark Haddock, who has been charged with two murders.
Operation Ballast was initiated after Mr McCord made a complaint to the former Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, into how the investigation into the murder of his son Raymond Jnr by the UVF on November 9, 1997, was handled by police.
The subsequent damning report by Dame Nuala O'Loan claimed the paramilitary killers were protected from prosecution because they were police agents.
But Mr McCord said "the time has now come" for the police officers mentioned in the report to be investigated.
"I am going to ask Mr Woodward to set up an investigation into the corrupt police officers and for it to be handled by an outside agency," he said.
"Those who investigate the officers should be from outside the jurisdiction in the interests of fair play, as PSNI officers – who are now handling Operation Ballast – cannot investigate their colleagues.
"I now want the files that Mrs O'Loan sent to the PPS to be investigated.
"The victims' families still have grave doubts that the corrupt police officers will ever be dealt with properly by the PSNI.
"If they can grant an inquiry into the deaths on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry, they can certainly grant an inquiry into what happened here where more than 25 people died."
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 14 February 2012
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