‘Yet another probe into Storey funeral now needed’: Nesbitt

That is the view of UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt, who said that he and new party leader will meet the PSNI chief today.

There has already been a report done into the Storey funeral affair by barrister Peter Coll QC, who looked into Belfast City Council’s handling of the cremation of the former IRA.

It reported in February, saying that the fact the council allowed the Storey family a cremation on the same day it denied the service to other families was “avoidable, unnecessary and simply wrong”.

The PPS the following month released its own report into the funeral more generally.

It found that because the law was said to be too complicated there was not a realistic prospect of any prosecutions succeeding.

And this week the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) basically absolved the PSNI of any serious wrongdoing in relation to the funeral, even though the video evidence they captured on the day turned out to be useless for identifying alleged breaches of the law.

Speaking on Stephen Nolan’s late night BBC show on Wednesday, Mr Nesbitt said the report is “not complete”.

“I regret that the minister Naomi Long called it comprehensive when she greeted it on Monday.

“What are we going to do? Doug Beattie and I are going to see the Chief Constable on Friday morning. Doug Beattie is going to write to Naomi Long to suggest that she needs to intervene.

“We need, I’m afraid, another review of what went on because what we’ve got in the HMIC report is incomplete.

“There are some facts in there. There are facts stated as facts which appear not to be facts.”

More from this reporter:

Click here – Exclusive: Body probing Bobby Storey funeral had no powers in NI

Click here: Biggest Protestant church in NI backs DUP bill on disabled abortions

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