Ombudsman in eye of storm over police caution of son
Sunday August 13 2006
THE North's Police Ombudsman is at the centre of a storm over the issuing of a police caution to her youngest son.
Ian Paisley Jnr says he will raise legal matters surrounding the issue when he speaks to the PSNI Chief Constable tomorrow.
Mr Paisley says he is concerned that proper procedures may not have been followed within the Police Service after a caution was issued to 18-year-old Kieran O'Loan last month.
The DUP Assemblyman believes the incident should have been reported to the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider bringing criminal charges because of the comments allegedly made by the Police Ombudsman's son.
Sources in Ballymena, where Mrs O'Loan's husband Declan is an SDLP Councillor, say Kieran O'Loan was spoken to by members of a police Tactical Support Group who were on duty in the town to assist local police to keep rival factions apart before the annual Somme Commemorationparade last month.
The incident occurred in the mainly Nationalist William Street area just before 3 o'clock on Saturday, July 1, before the Orange Parade assembled. Security sources say two members of the Tactical Support Group accompanied by a community police officer were subjected to a torrent of verbal and sectarian abuse in the William Street area before the parade took place and spoke to Mrs O'Loan's son about his conduct.
The PSNI confirmed that an incident involving police officers occurred. "A youth was cautioned about his behaviour at William Street on July 1," a spokesman said.
In a statement, Mrs O'Loan's spokesman said: "This is not a matter for the Police Ombudsman's Office except to reiterate Mrs O'Loan's often-stated position that as Police Ombudsman and before that as a member of the Police Authority, she has long been committed to policing in Northern Ireland and, in particular, helping to improve policing for everyone in local society."
Declan O'Loan was prominent in challenging Unionist politicians over the picketing of the Catholic Church at Harryville in Ballymena during the height of the disturbances around Drumcree Parish Church in Portadown.
In May this year, a 15 year-old Catholic youth Michael McIlveen was beaten to death in Ballymena by sectarian loyalist thugs at Garfield Place not far from William Street.
Ian Paisley Jnr said yesterday that he intends to raise the circumstances of the caution incident with the Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde when he meets him tomorrow.
"I am concerned that there may have been inadequate action by the Police Service in relation to this matter and I shall raise that with the Chief Constable.
"My understanding is that if remarks of a sectarian or racial nature are uttered that a report must be forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service for consideration as to whether a criminal prosecution should be brought. I do not believe that that procedure was followed in this case and I want to know why.
"In other circumstances, it may be a proper case for the Police Ombudsman to probe but in these particular circumstances I hardly imagine that the investigation of such a complaint should be undertaken by Mrs O'Loan for obvious reasons."
Three weeks before the caution was issued in Ballymena another of Mrs O'Loan's sons, Damian, was attacked and brutally beaten by a gang of loyalist thugs at Hillview Court in North Belfast as he walked home to his flat in the Ardoyne area.
The 23-year-old graduate sustained a broken arm, a displaced kneecap, and torn ligaments and muscles in his legs and was left unconscious.
He believes they used iron bars as he lay unconscious. Damian O'Loan remained unconscious in hospital for 24 hours and has suffered dizzy spells since his release.
Kieran O'Loan was attacked by loyalists in the Galgorm Road area of Ballymena in October 2001 when he was 14 years old. Mrs O'Loan has five sons.
