​Questions still hang above ‘Sean’ PSNI sectarianism saga over a week on

​The News Letter has tried to obtain more information about the affair from the force a number of times this week, but it has yet to provide any.

It comes after former PSNI head of discipline Jon Burrows penned a long piece, published in the News Letter on Friday, detailing his concerns about the case.

The whole saga began in March when a medically-retired officer from the PSNI’s Tactical Support Group (TSG) made claims of anti-Catholic sectarianism in the force in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph.

An example he gave was of someone using the phrase “fenian b******s”, but he also said officers had disparaged him for wearing ash on his forehead at Lent, and claimed that someone had been whistling The Sash around the Twelfth. The claims of sectarianism are strenuously denied by many of his former TSG colleagues.

Sean (not his real name) was said to be suing the PSNI, then seemed to drop the case when his lawyer there had been no overt sectarianism, but rather nuanced sectarianism.

On May 8, the chief constable Jon Boutcher told the Policing Board that he had met Sean, and whilst he was a “thoroughly decent” man, “I've no concerns that the blacks [his TSG unit], the officers, his colleagues, acted in a sectarian way towards him”.

This sparked confusion, with Mr Burrows wondering how the two things could be reconciled.

There was further confusion when Kevin Winters, solicitor for Mr Burrows, said that Sean stands over his account of what happened, albeit in terms of a claim of “nuanced” sectarianism.

This further confused Mr Burrows, who said that the phrase “fenian b******s” is an example of “blatant” and “overt sectarianism”.

The matter was further complicated when Mr Winters told the News Letter that a legal case against the police had not been dropped, but deferred.

The News Letter has been trying to disentangle the saga.

On Monday we asked for the chief constable to explain further, but the PSNI replied: “The chief constable outlined his position at the board and we have nothing further to add.”

Since then the News Letter has asked whether the chief constable knew that Sean was still considering legal action against the force when he spoke to the Policing Board, and whether his meeting with Sean had influenced a decision to conduct an anonymous staff survey this coming autumn about officers’ experiences of sectarianism, racism, sexism, and more.

The force was also asked to respond to ex-officer Jim Gamble, who said has said that if Sean's accusations are shown to be unsubstantiated then a “route for redress” should be opened for TSG officers. Lastly, the police was asked to clarify how the chief constable reconciles his emphasis on Sean's decency with Mr Boutcher’s belief that he did not in fact suffer sectarianism. There has been no response so far, at time of writing.

In the News Letter today, Mr Burrows wrote that he believed there had been obvious “red flags” about Sean’s claims.