Top PSNI officer denies Avoniel talks with UVF

Responding to claims that officers had held discussions around the Avoniel bonfire situation with a man widely reported to be a local UVF leader, ACC Alan Todd said no formal engagement had taken place.

Mr Todd also said it was not PSNI policy to meet with anyone convicted of UVF membership.

The initial debate was sparked when loyalist activist Jamie Bryson – a member of the East Belfast Cultural Collective – claimed senior police officers had met a delegation including Stephen Matthews.

Mr Matthews has never been convicted of any UVF-linked criminality and strongly denies claims he is involved in any UVF activity.

At the time, Mr Bryson said: “[Mr Matthews] played an extremely positive role as part of the collective in ensuring we had a peaceful cultural celebration at Avoniel.”

The Eleventh Night celebrations passed off peacefully at Avoniel amid heightened tensions around a city council pledge to clear the site – and subsequent threats from loyalists directed at contractors they believed were ready to carry out the work.

Speaking on the Nolan Show on Tuesday, ACC Todd said: “We don’t engage with crime gangs and we don’t engage with paramilitary bodies.

“There will always be people at the fringes, or in fact involved in those organisations who aren’t subject to any criminal convictions, who will put themselves forward in various circumstances and in various scenarios, but we don’t meet with the Ulster Volunteer Force, or its convicted representatives, or anybody that is convicted of membership of it.”

Mr Bryson responded by saying the same police policies must apply to all terrorist groupings. “We can not have a situation whereby the IRA receive a special form of treatment, so I think ACC Todd needs to clarify that,” he said. “We have this morning heard very clearly from ACC Todd, without any equivocation, that the PSNI will not meet anyone convicted of membership of a proscribed organisation.

“I would like the PSNI to confirm whether going forward they will be applying this test equally across the board and therefore refusing to have meetings with any republicans and/or members of Sinn Fein who have convictions for IRA membership?” Mr Bryson added.

ACC Todd declined to comment specifically on the claim that police will not meet with anyone who has UVF-related convictions, but said: “At Avoniel and other bonfire sites officers came into contact with local people present there, including senior loyalists. This does not constitute formal engagement and no meetings took place between police and members of the UVF.”