Ronan Kerr murder: Police arrest third man

DETECTIVES investigating the murder of Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr in Omagh have arrested a third man.

The 33-year-old was detained in the Omagh area yesterday over the booby trap bomb attack that killed the 25-year-old officer outside his home last Saturday.

Police have been given five more days to question a 26-year-old man arrested in Scotland on Wednesday and re-arrested yesterday and a 40-year-old man arrested near Omagh on Thursday.

The bomb attack was blamed on dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.

The fresh arrest came as police have also announced the launch of a major reinvestigation of cold case dissident republican attacks. It has also emerged that the terror groups are continuing to target policemen in the wake of Pc Kerr’s murder.

The public outcry following the young Catholic officer’s death has had no influence on the mindset of the violent extremists, who remain focused on killing members of the security forces, according to senior police sources.

Detectives have evidence the dissidents have been actively targeting Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) personnel since the murder last weekend.

Officers do not want the nature of the intelligence to be made public for investigative reasons, but say murder plots are being uncovered at a rate of one a fortnight.

A PSNI source added: “There is absolutely no indication the community outrage has had any impact on the mindset of the dissidents.”

In a further development, it has emerged that just 24 hours before the fatal car bomb in Omagh, police had ordered a specialist team of detectives to begin sifting through evidence from historic dissident attacks.

The cold case review will see exhibits analysed using the latest fingerprint recognition technology and Low Copy Number DNA forensic techniques.