First Minister faces renewed questions after ex-SF man's solicitors reject 'baseless and malicious' claims

It follows the naming of the son of Sinn Fein MLA Carál Ní Chuilín in the Assembly on Wednesday by the TUV MLA Timothy Gaston, under privilege.

Mr Gaston cited online claims about Naoise Ó Cuilin – claims his lawyers have described as “false, erroneous and irresponsible”.

It relates to an escalating political row over the vandalism of a portrait of a former DUP lord mayor in October 2024 – an incident police treated as a hate crime.

This week, the Public Prosecution Service said there was no reasonable prospect of conviction for any criminal offence on the evidence available.

Prosecutors cited a lack of CCTV and witnesses, an inability to secure a list of attendees from the group hosting the event and a statement from the Sinn Fein chief whip – the only witness evidence available – that the man had “made no admission to being at the event and had denied any knowledge of the damage”.

After the naming of Mr Ó Cuilin in the Executive Office committee in Wednesday, KRW Law said the allegation that he was “involved in the damage” is “entirely false, baseless, and malicious”.

The law firm said: “For absolute clarity, and on our client’s behalf, I state unequivocally that our client did not cause any damage whatsoever to the portrait of Lord Wallace Browne. Any suggestion to the contrary is wholly unfounded.

“Our client responded positively to a request by police to attend voluntarily for police interview and was prepared to give an account. However, the paucity of evidence against our client was such that I advised him that there was nothing requiring an account, and that he should therefore exercise his lawful right to silence. This statutory protection exists for all citizens”.

They said it is “deeply improper that certain parties are now attempting to misrepresent the exercise of this legal right as implying guilt” – an insinuation which is “entirely rejected”.

Days after the 2024 incident in Belfast City Hall, the First Minister told the Assembly that the then-unnamed individual had made the party aware of his “involvement in an incident regarding a portrait in Belfast City Hall”.

Michelle O’Neill said that he was “immediately suspended” and the party notified police. She told MLAs that he had resigned from both his party membership and his employment.

Speaking to the BBC’s Nolan Show on Thursday, the DUP’s Phillip Brett said he took the statement from Mr Ó Cuilin’s lawyers as a “direct contradiction, and indeed a direct attack upon the First Minister”.

The North Belfast MLA said Ms O’Neill was “the first person in Northern Ireland to claim that this person resigned from their job as a result of their involvement in the incident”.

“Serious questions that we've raised at the start of the week in relation to what the First Minister knew and didn't know, why she then came to the assembly and stated that Mr [Ó Cuilin] was involved in the incident… Why then the chief whip followed that up with an email to the Police Service of Northern Ireland stating that the resignation was a result of the incident.

“So the claims that Mr Ó Cuilin has made are a complete contradiction to what the First Minister told the assembly – and what the chief whip of Sinn Fein told the Police Service of Northern Ireland. So there are serious questions for Sinn Fein on this”, Mr Brett said.

The News Letter asked Sinn Fein if Michelle O'Neill could explain why she told the Assembly that the former SF employee and party member had made the party aware of his “involvement in an incident regarding a portrait in Belfast City Hall” – and what precisely she believed his “involvement” was when she addressed the Assembly.

At the time of going to print, Sinn Fein had not responded.

Earlier this week, the News Letter asked why Sinn Fein accepted the resignation of the man who, according to the PPS, had made “no admission to being at the event and had denied any knowledge of the damage” to the party’s chief whip. The party did not respond.