Maginnis continues war of words with Police Ombudsman

Ulster Unionist Ken Maginnis has fired the latest salvo in an extraordinary war of words with the office of the North’s Police Ombudsman.

Mr Maginnis has released the text of letters he received from the chief executive of the ombudsman’s office, Samuel Pollack, in which Mr Pollack accuses Mr Maginnis of putting the ombudsman’s life at risk.

Mr Pollack was responding to Mr Maginnis’s assertion that Nuala O’Loan has “outlived her usefulness” after publishing a report critical of the much-maligned RUC Special Branch.

This row erupted when Mr Maginnis likened Ms O’Loan to a suicide bomber and spoke of his “contempt” for her report, which “scandalously damages the reputation of the RUC Special Branch”.

Mr Pollack was so incensed by the comments that he wrote to Mr Maginnis accusing him of putting Ms O’Loan’s life in danger by “inciting terrorists and thugs”.

Mr Maginnis has now fired the latest blow, accusing Mr Pollack of “calculated rudeness, arrogance and intimidation”.