Ian Ogle murder: PSNI top brass confident of charges

Members of the PSNI’s top brass briefly outlined some details of the investigation into the “callous” killing as they were quizzed by the board, and also spoke of the blurred lines paramilitaries often walk between legitimacy and crime.

The Policing Board had been in abeyance since February 2017 due to the Stormont deadlock – with no justice minister to appoint MLAs, who make up about half the board.

The law was recently amended to allow their appointment without a minister, and today the new board gathered for the first time to grill the PSNI leadership.

Joanne Bunting, DUP MLA for East Belfast, asked the Chief Constable George Hamilton about the “an escalation” of paramilitary activity – particularly the recent Londonderry car bomb, and the “abhorrent and vicious murder of Ian Ogle by members of east Belfast UVF”.

She said she would not ask for specific details of the Ogle investigation, but asked if the Paramilitary Crime Taskforce (launched in 2017) was going to “adapt its activity to capitalise on this current wave of public revulsion” to “bring down” paramilitary gangs for good.

The chief constable mentioned having to deal with “so-called community leaders by day and paramilitary leaders by night”, and went on to tell the board (which includes convicted IRA bomber Gerry Kelly): “We will not tolerate and we will not give any legitimacy to paramilitary groups.

“They’re unlawful, they’re proscribed under the Terrorism Act. We want to unashamedly make life difficult for people involved in paramilitary activity.”

In east Belfast, policing teams “are doing their part”.

“This is where there’s a whole blurred area stretching right into things like licensing of door staff, security companies – not all of them now, some of them are conducted very well,” he said.

“Some of them are also quasi-legal organised crime gangs. We’ve a picture of this, we’re doing our best to dismantle it.”

Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Barbara Gray said since the task force was set up, there have been 408 searches, 165 arrests, and 16 convictions.

When it comes to Mr Ogle, she said his murder was “callous”, adding: “The investigation has been continuing at pace and to date we’ve 14 arrests and there have been 19 searches. We’ve absolutely no doubt that key suspects include people who have been associates with east Belfast UVF or members ... we are confident we’ll come to a place we’ll have people before the courts charged with this murder.”

Mr Ogle, 45, often described as a “community worker”, and who had a conviction for rioting in 2013, was stabbed in Cluan Place on January 27.

His daughter Toni Johnston has said Mr Ogle was “not very well liked within the organisation [UVF] because he was very vocal against drug dealing”.