PSNI '˜still considering' terror reports

Some 30 members of the Veterans Lobby Group (VLG) have logged allegations since November about terrorist attacks made against them when they served in Northern Ireland.

Ten months later the PSNI has still not briefed the VLG about how their complaints will be handled.

The VLG spokesman says he has been informed by senior PSNI officers that reviews of the cases were to be in June, then August and finally in September, but as yet there has been no response on how the PSNI will proceed.

The VLG, which is based in Wales but is primarily online, has some 18,000 members who served in Northern Ireland with various armed forces and police.

“What this is saying” the spokesman told the News Letter, “Is that the PSNI legacy unit was only ever set up with a view to investigating complaints against soldiers and police. I don’t understand why the system would not be in place to deal with our complaints. “They can say it had been set up on this date with this budget but it is only going to investigate complaints by republicans.”

He said Criminal Compensation Board rules state that claims can only be made three years after injuries but that this was set aside for Bloody Sunday families.

However many members of the VLG are suffering serious late on-set Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and he asks why they should not be given equal treatment.

One VLG veteran who served here during the 1980s, lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman against the Chief Constable, saying he would have been disciplined if he had failed to investigate a serious crime for ten months.

ACC Mark Hamilton, Head of the PSNI’s Legacy and Justice Department told the News Letter: “PSNI are currently considering the most appropriate course of action to take in relation to the complaints.”

Anyone who has a complaint about police should direct them to the office of the Police Ombudsman, he added.