‘Where is my apology?’ asks Jamie Bryson after chief constable says sorry to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey

Mr Bryson made his demand for the police to say sorry following an “unreserved apology” from Chief Constable Simon Byrne to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey yesterday.

Mr Birnie and Mr McCaffrey were subject to raids on their homes and offices in August 2018, in relation to an alleged stolen document, which formed a part of the documentary No Stone Unturned.

The documentary looked into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, when loyalists shot patrons in a country pub; the film’s tagline was: “A brutal atrocity / A government cover-up / A quest for justice.”

Last Friday the Court of Appeal quashed a search warrant used to raid their homes and offices, and the Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said there had been “no overriding requirement in the public interest which could have justified an interference with the protection of journalistic sources in this case”.

Yesterday the PSNI said: “This morning I have written to both Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney offering them an unreserved apology for the distress and upset caused to them and their families following the execution of search warrants at their homes and business premises on 31 August 2018... I fully accept the ruling of the Lord Chief Justice that the search warrants were unlawful.”

However, loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson was also subject to searches that were later found to have had an improper legal basis.

By co-incidence, the raids on his residential and business premises also happened in August 2018 – the month as those against Mr Birnie and Mr McCaffrey.

Another similarity was that, like Mr Birnie and Mr McCaffrey, Mr Bryson’s lawyers had argued the raids against him were wrong because he was to be treated as a journalist and material seized could be regarded as forming a part of his work.

Yesterday, Mr Bryson said: “I find it incredible that in the case of Mr Birney and Mr McCaffrey that the Chief Constable would issue a public apology, yet no such apology has ever been issued to me for the execution of unlawfully obtained search warrants.”

He added: “I will he formally writing to the Chief Constable asking for a similar formal and public apology.”

In response, the PSNI said: “The Police Service of Northern Ireland have received correspondence in relation to this matter, which we will respond to in due course.”

Gavin Robinson, DUP MP for East Belfast and qualified barrister, said: “If the police have been found to have breached the law, or acted unlawfully, and the courts have determined that, then of course they should apologise – to whoever. If an apology is due, if they have erred in law, they should be upfront and honest about it.”

He said that after a Twelfth parade was attacked in 2013, it took two years and a police ombudsman investigation before the police apologised.

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