Chief Constable wants to lead the PSNI into legitimising Sinn Fein pulling his puppet strings: TUV leader Jim Allister

Meanwhile the TUV has urged senior management of the PSNI to stop Mr Byrne making an appeal against the Judicial Review.

Policing Board member Mike Nesbitt expressed disappointment that he and party leader Doug Beattie will not be able to pursue issues that were left unexplored.

Mike Nesbitt said: "It had been my intention to question the suggestion from Justice Scoffield that police decisions were influenced by the threat or perceived threat of Sinn Féin withdrawing from the Policing Board if the officers were not disciplined.

"Writing in Republican News a couple of days after the Ormeau Road event, senior Sinn Fein member Declan Kearney stated, ‘Our engagement with the PSNI and the police accountability mechanisms, such as the Policing Board, has been consistent and constructive. But it has also been conditional ... some have clearly made an assumption that Sinn Fein's leadership can be taken for granted, that's a mistake’.”

Mr Nesbitt said: "That raises the legitimate question of whether that was the atmosphere in which decisions were being taken at Police Headquarters. If so, that represents unacceptable political interference.

"Police officers, staff and the public are all entitled to know what weight the Chief Constable and the Senior Executive Team put on political opinion when making decisions. The Ulster Unionist Party will continue to press for greater clarity on this critical issue."

Meanwhile TUV leader Jim Allister said that the Chief Constable’s behaviour not only highlights his “disregard” for the service he leads but suggests a “lack in his own sense of dignity”.

He said: “To defend a case as a respondent is one thing, but to then decide to become the proactive protagonist by appealing the judicial finding is to deliberately try and put down the successful junior constables. His antics are made worse by his initial acceptance of the outcome.

“Presumably, any appeal has to be a corporate decision, whether by the Senior Management Team, or others. Any such corporate decision to appeal the very clear and emphatic findings means all taking that decision are complicit in the attempt to humiliate and uphold the discipline of the junior officers. That is not where the PSNI corporately should go.

"Bad enough to have a rogue Chief Constable out of touch with his officers, but if the corporate leadership of PSNI takes that stance, then, confidence in the whole organisation is on the line. Thus, the Senior Management Team needs to refuse to back and thereby block any appeal.

“The reality and only available ground of appeal is for the PSNI to argue – as they did in the court below – that political considerations can legitimately shape and determine an operational decision. That is a staggering contention and one which Schofield J rightly rejected.

“This is a Chief Constable who not only has failed catastrophically but who now wants to lead the PSNI into legitimising Sinn Fein pulling his puppet strings – because, that is the essence of what the Court of Appeal would be asked to accept.”