'Far too many people wanted the claims of sectarian police to be true' says Doug Beattie as allegations collapse
Doug Beattie has said that those who were “salivating” over the tale of sectarian misconduct by police need now to “stop and reflect”.
The Upper Bann UUP MLA and former party leader said the harm which the false accusations from retired officer ‘Sean’ had caused was “huge”.
Speaking to the News Letter last night, he said: “There are far too many people out there who wanted this to be true, and were far too quick to present it as being true.
"There'd be some who were absolutely salivating at accusations made against the PSNI and PSNI officers and all of those people need to stop and reflect on this. Because it's not true: it's been proven not to be true.
"These police officers have been working with incredible integrity, and this type of slur really has affected them, and I'm glad now it's been exposed for what it is.
"And I hope those people who were quick to criticise, quick to jump to conclusions, or those who failed to support the police in this come out now and make amends.
"I think it's caused huge damage, because when you present a slur and people accept it as fact, then that's going to have an effect on people's opinion of the police service [and] it's going to have an effect on the police officers themselves, that they think that's what's happening within their ranks.”
The PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher had said on May 8 that the PSNI had investigated and that he was “absoutely satisfied” that Sean did not face sectarianism – but then declined to say much more.
"I've said this before and I'll say it again: police have to be unambiguous when they come out and either defend themselves against slurs like this or investigate slurs like this,” said Mr Beattie.
"Once they had investigated, once they had seen that it wasn't true, then they should have been vigorous in their defence of the PSNI and their organisation.
"I think it wasn't clear enough, I think it wasn't quick enough, and I think this has lingered on for far too long.”
He said the leadership of the PSNI are in “a difficult position,” but that “the moment something is found to be not true or not credible, they have to defend themselves vigorously”.